How To Curve Sheet Metal

Here s a good rule of thumb for most materials.

How to curve sheet metal. With a combination of these manipulations you can create anything from flat sheet and you. To clamp efficiently lay your sheet metal on the top surface of your straightedge with the drawn line perfectly aligned with the outside edge of the sheet metal. Sheetmetal from flat to curved. After all there are only four things you can do to metal.

Using protective gloves hold the free end of the metal sheet with one hand and with the other hand use a mallet or hammer to begin bending the sheet down and around the curved radius of the wood form. In other words if you re bending 1 8 sheet use a tool with a 1 8 radius to form the inside of the bend. If you re bending 0 020 thick material use a 0 020 radius. So what i did was build the extrude converted it to sheet metal driving surface and then added a bend feature selecting one of the end edges as the bend line the bend radius would be change from thickness to whatever diameter you are wrapping the label on to.

The inside bend radius should be equal to the thickness of the material that you re forming. Artist kevin caron shows how to create a curve he can cut out on an aluminum metal sheet for the public sculpture he s working on. Cut it bend it shrink it and stretch it. Mark your bend lines.

He shows a little trick an. Then place a 2x2 inch strip across the sheet metal so the edge is aligned with the line drawn on the sheet metal.