Sheet Metal Shrinking Heat

The bulge can then be tapped down flat with a hammer and dolly to thicken the metal in that spot.

Sheet metal shrinking heat.

A common recommended fix is to use oxy acetylene heat to create a localized hot spot that bulges the metal above the mean surface of the panel. There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to applying heat to steel. Traditionally heat from a torch along with intermittent cooling from a wet rag and or use of a hammer and dolly was the common practice used for shrinking. Usually you can get away with a few small shrinks before the metal starts to work harden too much.

Do not over heat the steel. This happens because while a panel is being heated the heated area is trying to expand. Here we ll walk you through two of the most common ways to use an oxy torch to straighten a sheet metal panel via a process called heat shrinking. Shrinking occurs after heating causing expansion and cooling metal resulting in contraction.

Hopefully the following will clear up some of those fallacies. To avoid this cancel and sign in to youtube on your. Alternatively you can try hammering off dolly to move the metal around a little to where it needs to be. This takes away some of the stretch.

Heat shrinking metal lots of controversy surrounds heat shrinking yet i ve successfully used this process for 40 years. If you need to shrink in the center or where you can t get a shrinking tool in you must heat shrink either with a torch or a shrinking disc. It certainly does however eventually make the metal brittle and unworkable so make sure to heat and shrink enough the first time if you use a wet rag to cool. Heating up metal and throwing cold water on it may shrink it a tiny bit but it makes distortion and hard steel.

Get used to this idea and your abilities will grow. It not only makes a damaged panel repairable and can save a job from. Why not just heat it and gently hammer the swell down. Heat to blue only and shrink that much.

Many metalworkers still prefer to use. The surrounding cold metal is containing the majority of the expansion and holding it in creating compaction or shrinking.