How To Shrink Aluminum Sheet Metal

This will create a cold aluminum area or a hard steel one with very little resulting shrinkage.

How to shrink aluminum sheet metal. How to shrink aluminum step 1. Slide on a pair or leather work gloves safety glasses and a dust mask to protect your skin eyes and lungs. Place your aluminum sheet onto a work surface. Then twist the handle of the tool to twist the metal around one side of the fork.

Heat up a quarter sized spot on. Fit an appropriate tip between size 000 or 2 to an. Get used to this idea and your abilities will grow. Could also add some shape around the holes with offset roller or hammer form.

Heating up metal and throwing cold water on it may shrink it a tiny bit but it makes distortion and hard steel. Then remove the tool and move it over so the fork will roll the metal over the other side of the fork by twisting the metal the other direction. This is where the tuck shrinking fork from a few weeks back comes into play. Hot shrinking is the legendary shrinking method of simply heating up and dashing water for a quick chill.

Put it in a bead roller and put a small bead though the middle to take up the stack and add some shape. Do not over heat the steel. You could do it with a hammer as well and a groove in a piece of wood. If you have access to a bead roller roll yourself a bead and shrink it.

Why not just heat it and gently hammer the swell down. Flat metal warps easy. Start by inserting the fork into the edge of the sheet metal at the desired depth of the shrink you want to make.