Tipping an edge of an opening.

[jvo]

Had a friend call to borrow a 3/8 diameter T dolly if I had one. He needed to tip the edges of the heater duct openings over so the duct work would line up properly. I told him I would just do it, as he does lots of stuff for me. He had made the panel and he cut out the openings.

I never kept track of time here, but I didn't start till 9 and it was done by noon, and I did some snow shovelling, and started a fire in the stove for the missus. Wasn't a big deal. I started by tipping the edge with a home made tipping tool. Just a chunk of 1/2 round stock mild steel. I cut two saw blades width into the end as this job is tipping 16 gauge mild steel.

My fingers are beginning to have arthritis and that short little tipping tool wouldn't have been a problem for my fingers years ago, but they just don't work as good as they used to. Hence the vice grips. Gives a lot more leverage to tip that 16 gauge edge.

 

[jvo]

I decided to do this thread because he was only going to hammer on the opening. I thought there may be some others who don't know how to make a simple job into a nightmare either, so we start with the tipping tool.

Its very important to only "tip" about 5 degrees at a time. Patience grasshopper, as you'll instantly find out if you tip too much, your tipping tool won't move sideways to the next spot.

You know you have only tipped about 5 degrees when you can easily slide the tool sideways, just for the width of the tool, then pull up 5 degrees, slide it over, pull it up 5 degrees. Patience grasshopper, you pulled up too far, and now you stretched the edge instead of just bending it, and now you have waves in the edge. Etc. etc.

You don't have to tip it up to 90 degrees, although its nice if you can. You can start using a body tapper and dolly as soon as you have a nicely defined edge around the hole.

I have told many people that you will use every single corner and angle of your railroad rail dolly once you get used to it. Here it is really nice for defining those inside corners. I credit David Gardiner for the rail dolly. I bought his video many years ago. Super value for 65 bucks.

 

[jvo]

I went back and forth with the tipping tool and tapper and dolly several times. Whatever is working at that particular moment.

I thought I'd throw this shot in as to how I cut the slot to make the tipping tool. Took about 30 seconds on my little bandsaw. Anyone that's doing any fabricating needs one of these. Wonderful little tool, and is big enough to make most of the brackets you need for your project. Cuts 1/2 inch plate.

 

[jvo]

Take note of the wood blocks under the other end. I have quite an assortment of "kindling" for just this purpose. The dolly should touch the whole surface of the panel, then using your body tapper, planish the panel so its all in one plane. You will note in these pics the corner of the opening is tucked nicely into the under side of the rail, and the panel is nicely supported. You can easily tap the whole thing perfectly flat for whatever is being supported by the dolly. Then move it around to the next section. If you keep it flat on top of the dolly, the whole shebang can be tapped flat and hopefully you won't have any warpage.

Hammer the hell out of it and all bets are off.

 

[jvo]

One of my rarely used body tappers, that has a small enough head to get into narrow spaces. Nicely planished that edge against the flat part of the rail.
Note the opposite end of that tool used to have a pick point. I have ground every pic hammer I own that way, That point works particularly well on inside corners. I don't use it much, but both ends of it have special purposes.

I got lucky that I didn't get much distortion after all the planishing and tapping, except for this one area. I got lucky that the edge fit into the kick shrinker, and a few little shrinks got that back straight again.

That's pretty much it. Hope it helps someone out on a cold winter night.

 

[ratrig]

Excellent write up! I learnt lots from this including the portable bandsaw mounted vertical. I was just thinking today it would be nice to own one but I dont have the space for a large unit .

 

[CDNflatlander]

Well stated Ratrig!!
I want to go try this out in my shop. I will go back and re-read this and try it out. The concern looking at this for me is working around the radius ends. Get after and try it says my inner voice.

Band saw, that is a sexy little hand held unit, John. I have a large shop horizontal that I bought to relieve the stresses of Stainless steel and high nickel materials I had run through my little harbour freight horizontal-vertical. Now the little saw stays set up as vertical.
Most excellent thread John!
Thanks,
Greg

 

[jvo]

For doing the radius ends, you will be stretching the material. The sides are simply bent up. So yes, the ends are the most work.
You might try grinding the tipping tool end down to somewhat of a taper, like a pencil. That would allow you to work it around the end more easily. The square ended tool I used did bind up going around that tight radius, but I knew if I got the tip close to the bend line that I could tap it into submission with a dolly behind the corner.
I hope it puts a grin on your face once you've done it.

 

[Scotty]

I have done this and it works great, and is quick as JVO said. I was doing a curve as well and made my tipping tool out of a piece of 1/8 flat strap. There was no binding, but it took many more small bends to achieve the desired result. It was still very quick to do.

Keep up the demos. very informative.

 

[Hotflint]

nice work! turned out great!

 

[shaune]

All this metal work info has me getting curious to see how poorly I can. I have a starter project I have been sitting on for a couple years....getting an inclination to move towards it.

 

[58chev]

Excellent write up.

I will have to try my hand at this just to see what transpires.