Sheet Metal Shrinking Technique

A method of shrinking metal by bunching it together through force using a crevice and spade hammer or a folding technique where the metal is bent at the edges with a homemade tucking fork.

Sheet metal shrinking technique.

Start by inserting the fork into the edge of the sheet metal at the desired depth of the shrink you want to make. The traditional method is to heat a small area of the stretched metal an area roughly between dime and nickel size with an oxyacetylene torch to red hot. A process that uses a hammer and dolly a stretcher or an english wheel to pull metal apart. The basic principle of shrinking and stretching relies on squeezing the metal together or pulling it apart to stretch.

Using hand tools and machines. Shrinker stretchers accomplish this with a pair of ribbed jaws that bite into. There are various approaches to doing this. 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 sheet metal should be of the same thickness as the metal that you will be shrinking. Sandwich the 2 by 4 inch piece of sheet metal between the two pieces of bar stock with the drift pins slanted toward each other. Correcting it requires shrinking the metal in the affected area. Cut a 2 by 4 inch piece of sheet metal using the tin snips.

The best is to use heat a wood hammer and a dolly. Then twist the handle of the tool to twist the metal around one side of the fork. There are many ways to shrink. It can be described much like an oil can lid.

Using wood you eliminate one of those hard points so the metal can move without stretching. Shrinking metal is a special technique and there are many ways to do it. You have to adjust your mind to the concept that when you hammer on sheet metal with a steel hammer onto a steel dolly or anvil that you will expand or increase the surface area by thinning the metal.