How-To Build Aluminum Bomber Seats From Scratch! Bead Rolling Dimple Die Metal Shaping

[@MLFranklin]

This is one of the cooler designs I've seen. Which bomber had similar seats?

[@jg24diecast41]

I like that you don't edit out the mistakes that happen AND i like how you and your brother work so well together.

[@blainedavis8206]

I've done a lot of aircraft sheet aluminum cutting on a waterjet, even with a waterjet we have to use water cooling because the heat will cause it to lift and warp up fast, we will also sometimes follow the cut head around with a stick and forcefully hold the metal down to the bed, that and we always clock our parts in our CAD so that we never bend along the grain of the aluminum, aluminum is really prone to stress cracking along the your bends, I've had to scrap a few parts because i forgot this before, and a helpful tip is aluminum grain almost always runs the length of your 4x8 sheet

[@peterspicer3740]

I love that you share the stuff as you learn and even the mistakes. It teaches everyone so much more and also encourages conversation in the comments.

[@nickmaas4467]

Man, it’s refreshing to have such a cool dude just willing to share such great information and resources. I love your channel and just plain everything you do. Appreciate ya bud.

[@John_D75]

Karl, thank you for sharing this with us! I am psyched to see the completed seat. Those brass colored rivets are going to look sweet!

[@MakeItKustom]

You’re so welcome John! Thanks for your support!!!

[@CraigHollabaugh]

Excellent build video, complete with several valuable tips (like valve grinding compound on galled threads). Thanks to you and to Elio for stepping in to help, friends are the best.

[@307Garage]

That is turning out SICK as hell! You could step it up with the sides with the inset piece with the dimple dies, You could make it out of brass or bluen the metal some how! Sky is the limit!!!

[@murdoc6501]

Again, artistry, engineering and craftsmanship! Amazing. Go Karl and Elio and Japhands, keep moving forward!

[@rodjames2]

I believe you make the nicest interiors Karl! Your bead rolling and patterns are beautiful and look like automotive jewelry.

[@billnlori3149]

That new CNC is quite the upgrade!! Its sweet working with a guy like Elio, thinking along the same lines and ready to jump in a go!

[@GaryGilpin-or5xr]

Awesome! You and Jordan are my favourite metal shakers and custom builders.

[@zekecook6586]

You get the most useful comments/suggestions, I love your subscribers!

[@minnesotatomcat]

On thin sheet metal like that has a tendency to ripple like that there is a head attachment u can get that clamps onto the head of the torch that has usually like 5 roller balls and then when you put the head down to cut it both holds the sheet down so it doesn’t ripple and as you set it just below the head height if it does ripple a bit the attachment with the balls keeps the sheet from coming up far enough to snag the head and move the sheet around. I’m a sheet metal fabricator and we’ve had that problem before on our plasma table.

[@karlstehle8750]

You are by far my favorite fabricator Karl, and Elio is extremely sharp as well. Totally impressive and fun to watch your shows, I've learned a lot. The valve grind compound trick is,well... trick!! Thank you man!!!!

[@scramblr08]

Great seat design, like you said it can still be customized as well. Thank you for thinking of your viewers and putting that file up on your site. Maybe you could offer a kit of just the flat pieces already cut that would be easy and cost effective to ship. Whoever buys them can beadroll, break and flare the sheets themselves. Just a thought.

[@rockypergin2216]

And the seat turned out really good! Booyaa

[@reneprovencher8395]

I’m back, oh boy getting old I have missed a bunch of your shows. Like missing the last builds of your COE truck. So glad I am able to catch up. Getting sidetracked with hospital stats, ugghh. Love your stuff. I see these seats going in the market place like SPEEDWAY? Your are top notch!!!!!!!👍🙃🥸

[@SchysCraftCo.]

Beautiful seats Carl. Congratulations on your new tool / toy my friend. Hopefully you get great use out of that cnc for many years to come my friend. Hopefully you get great use out of the seats. Love this design and style of seat. Can't wait to see more videos soon my friend. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Fab On. Weld On. Keep Making. God bless.

[@javman03]

I think the seat design is sooo sick. Love it!

[@johnmcclain3887]

You guys really do a great bit of work together, this build reminds me of the seventies, working on military aircraft in Kaneohe, Hawaii in the Marines. I really enjoy your taste in music, straight out of the seventies as well, along with some interesting jazz, something my dad was into as I was growing up. It's great to see another generation learning to use the tooling and equipment from the past, while demonstrating some really cool machines right up to the minute. That CNC plasma table is incredible, despite the minor hiccups.

[@schwabrichard9829]

A great looking seat! Keep up the good work!!

[@Rokcrler]

Karl another awesome part man...as soon as I saw the fine-cut at the beginning I said oh no! I've drug many parts trying to use fine cuts... Glad y'all found the issue.. You and Elio work very well together! Thanks for showing the good and the bad and the process of overcoming the issues. As others mentioned, use the easyscribe to do the centering mark.. About 0.02 works. Once you get the machine dialed in, .0125" holes will cut clean. Keep grinding man!

[@Shelbycarguy]

Love your work. You really should consider doing a short run of the bomber seats - cut it out and sell them as a flat pack IKEA style. You could lay out the cuts for max efficiency and then seel them for maximum people to finish. The brass inserts are wicked and you could let people option in and out. again , great work and proud you are Canadian!!!

[@reneprovencher8395]

I love aluminium seats. These are great!!!!

[@mattsbidnuz11]

Karl, They have a tool we called a chip chaser for the burs created between the aluminum pieces. It is a thin piece of steel with a little hook at the end that you can slip down in between the aluminum. Since the steel is harder than the aluminum it cuts the burs off and since it is thin can be used near the cleco's without distorting the aluminum.

[@Carnold_YT]

Nice work guys, I really like this design. Too bad it won't fit my project car, but every time I watch this channel I feel the need to build a hot rod 😊

[@mechniack]

Love the adjustable seat back 😁

[@alanellsworth5961]

As always, nice work sir. For prick punch / pierce marking on one side, we draw a plus symbol with the laser, result is similar to your scribe.

[@onelowzuki]

Appreciate all the info as always and the fact you offer files for free. Makes learning so much easier!!!!!

[@campbecw]

Looks awesome! It also looks really neat with the clecos.

[@georgemadrigal7909]

Man your shop getting better and better congrats

[@domenicozagari2443]

If you can put some steel wight to keep the aluminum down. Very nice job, you can gold plate it, pass a battery electricity in a bath of salty water with a bit of gold.

[@jsshayes1]

Super cool project Karl. Loving the Fastcut as well, looking forward to see what you make with it.

[@michaelanderson3771]

Karl. Tip If you put a piece of rubber or silicon hose over the drill bit - acts both as a depth gage and also stops the chuck from Marring the metal if you push through - also use short jobber bits - less length flutes and shank - less likely to snap a bit and a bit more control. Put the marked one on the inside and on the tunnel side of the seat. You will never notice it. Love your work and those Aluminium Rivets in a Brass colour - look awesome. Also what thickness Aluminium (Alooooominum) sheet did you use.?? Don't worry I had to wait till minute 52 for you to say 0.050"

[@flatworm00]

This technology is absolutely amazing!

[@stevesimons6333]

We use Scotchbrite and WD-40. It gives a nice grey satin finish. Looks good on the aluminum used for radiator ducting.

[@OICU-zh5on]

Your videos are absolutely inspiring!

[@badijks]

It is looking nice karl, only if you want to drill all the holes, it's easier to have the center's of the holes than the out scribed lines, but with the hole punch what you did is easier. Keep up the good work and i can't wait for the next episode👍🏻

[@shotsrodder]

Nice job guys. A copper insert might look cool 😎

[@howardsmith1111]

You Canadians are just nice people!! Suggestion for base - Jerry Can styled bead roll..

[@johnkranz4004]

Very nice job Karl and Elio

[@RGL_Motorsports]

That hole puch tool is a game changer too! Looking online at them right now.

[@jasonhovey815]

Amazing work as always. Absolutely love your channel thanks for showing us

[@Vidar.m]

Awesome tools, but even more awesome the creativity

[@carswithcrackers]

Good point about the corners on the bead roller. I'm about to mod my cheap import roller and I hadn't considered rounding the gullet edges.

[@gafrers]

Fantastic job.

[@williamgoodwin9667]

Hi a little bit of wood in the drill and some cutting compound do all those little cool circles you see in the table tops.❤❤❤❤ great seats by the way.

[@jeffcarrington7411]

That would be a rad coffee table! 🤘

[@jaybuilt4187]

hey Karl try using a piece of vacuum tube over the drill bit to stop the chuck from hitting your ally when the drill breaks through.nice job

[@ateamoffroad1179]

The seats look awesome man

[@grahamham3058]

Great Stuff Karl ...Keep up the awesome work ..Graham (Busselton-Dunsborough) Western Australia...Friend of Jordon Bennetts

[@floridian7143]

Thanks for sharing!

[@rcppop3090]

Thank you brother 👍🏼👍🏼

[@Mitchellfab_customs]

It ain't plain. It sure is nice. Probably don't customize to much. I'm going to use the same kind of side style on my seats. I've got seats from an newer style city bus. So it'll make it look nice with those sides. Good job guys! Always love your videos I'm building my car through your videos.

[@rondejoux8006]

I have been waiting on this build. Thank you.

[@bigsquatchsasfoot1964]

Wicked machine , technically has come such a long way so quickly quicker than my knowledge could keep up but it’s damn cool watching people use it who can . Seat looks amazing Carl really nice very impressive 👍

[@chrisallen2005]

#5 Whitney Punch. The only one to buy.

[@jeffpitzer8521]

The Whitney XX is awesome too... deeper throat..

[@tristanlockadventures2172]

Hey pretty sure on most of those machines they have a setting to start holes in the middle of them to avoid it marking the edge of the holes when it starts I could be wrong but might be worth a shot awesome work keep it up

[@milanvucinic9282]

Next time, maybe you could kick the bottom seat cushion up and then offset it for your knees like a BMW? 10 degrees? Beautiful work! 😉

[@cradd00]

When importing files from one drawing program to another beware of stacked lines in your work. Also, look in the margins for weird stuff that just appears. Yep, learning a new machine is always fun!

[@richardalvis4695]

Happy Easter to you and yours

[@jshafer51]

A cool addition to that sea would be a wired edge. Granted that would be a fair amount of work.

[@blackIce504]

at work we only used the plasma for cutting shapes, but the CNC turret did it all as it used combination of tools like drills and cutters basically a router with a tool changer, but she is loud as hell, I am sure you can get a small scale one, but with plasma too much heat is head crash.

[@lancemclean9273]

I like the design.

[@paulhedman7387]

Super Cool !!!!

[@joecioe8566]

Cool seat nice job enjoy watching your videos.

[@aaronkokesch3593]

When I worked at a waterjet shop we used to use weights on top of the material to control pop in the material when we did a few layers and/or to hold material more solidly in place. Might be an idea to help you on the metal pop as well due to heat? 😊

[@wiskybilt9399]

Love your channel. Very good flow. Great info.

[@davidbutcher1105]

A "trick" I learned when working in a wood trim factory is a sacrificial backer leaves a clean edge on the good pieces. I think it would be worth trying on a project like this. You would need to clamp it, though to make it seem like the two pieces acted like one....might be worth thinking about

[@MakeItKustom]

I’ll definitely have to try that!

[@rtrottier14]

When I do that many wholes at a time for riviting, I usually use a zero flute chamfer tool to speed up the cleaning of the drilled wholes.

[@Rick.123]

Nice build Karl, if was me I had put some clamp on the sheet or weight and depending on the bend an alcohol coolant with the air or the table coolant system to prevent warping and fumes at the same time. Thanks for the video

[@VwRosstorations]

You got some neat little de burring hand tools going on there. Gonna have to find me some of them..keep on keeping on man.. 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@RandallSoong-pp7ih]

Awesome! Thank you!!

[@blackbuttecruizr]

Great work!

[@jasonshaw9240]

Awesome 👌

[@obzelite]

You need a waterbed plasma table. Downdraft plasma tables you will always get warping on thin parts. Downdraft is fine for large parts with no complicated cutting.

[@alleyoop1234]

A bit of feedback. I personally would add a 3/8" round bead all the way around the seat. But all is top notch besides, utube needs a "Super Like" button!

[@peterouellette3874]

Excellent

[@jjohnson2553]

Seat is looking great. It would be interesting to see how they looked if the metal you scuffed up with scotch brite had more contrast like maybe brass colored instead of raw aluminum.

[@kyronwagner9015]

We used aluminum rivets to hold down the sheets in the slopes of are grain trailers the head is way bigger than those ones I think they are 1/8” shank anyways another thing to check out maybe. Looks great. I also talked to the weld shop in town he has the same plasma table he used that etching tip to etch there logo in things

[@GoldenSim27]

i like the gass venting holes haha

[@theartman410]

Why I Love my ball roller height controller. Set it, zero it and done

[@therustyshoe8958]

I use a waterjet. with the warpage of thin metals keep some flat plates of metal or gym plates on hand to keep the sheet metal from bowing up. The weights keep everything down. Just make sure you arent going to travel your cuts in their location

[@kurtludwig6962]

Yes I like the idea of you making drawings available

[@jameslangford4748]

PLEASE show us how you designed and made (make) cantilevers for your shop rod. What you make WITHOUT a CNC is great for those of us who will never own a CNC.

[@jman6030]

Once you put the rivets in it'll be killer.Can't wait to see the end product 🤙

[@MakeItKustom]

Yeaaaaaa man!!

[@roberthirshfield3571]

Maybe try some vac line over the drill bit cut to length so you can adjust the depth of the hole

[@pauld8869]

To change it up a bit, thought about anodising? So many different colours now. Like you have done using the scotchbrite, that part could be anodised. Great that you are sharing the files. 👍👍

[@christhompson475]

Awsome content as usual. Great work!!

[@MrHayabusa1299]

I am lucky enough to live just a few miles from Eastwood. It’s my favorite place!

[@MrHayabusa1299]

Pottstown, Pennsylvania location. This is the original location. I know they have expanded.

[@trialanderrorrobotics3616]

Watching Elio drill the holes makes me wonder if you could temporarily attach a spring loaded center punch to the side of the CNC. It would require an extra work offset in the settings, but I wouldn't think it would be too difficult. I've never used that machine software before though. The circles are great if you're using the punch, but are only 70% for the drill since you have to eyeball the center of the circle and try and keep the bit from walking. Great work though, keep up the good work.

[@puzzled4163]

If your valve lapping compound gets dry add clean motor oil to it to wet the lapping compound.

[@michaelguinn5736]

Morning Karl & Eleo, finally took the time to watch your video, my Dear Wife of 25 years passed away last week of a lengthy illness, she's in Heaven now, no more pain or suffering, so needless to say, things have been busy. I bought a pair of bomber seats for my 31 Ford Coupe from Speedway, after watching this video, it looks like I may have to personalize them a bit. Y'all be safe!! God Bless!!

[@MakeItKustom]

Michael I’m so sorry 😞 can’t imagine what it’s like for you. My condolences 💐 Hope you chop them seats up to make it kustom! Take care Michael 🙏

[@AlexSwavely]

If someone wanted to make something similar to that insert but didn't have a bead roller, they sell aluminum sheet with a diamond emboss - it's often used on vending trailers and "roach coach" food trucks.

[@WayneWerner]

Seeing the effect on those scratches - i bet you could scribe a hologram - check Steve Mould's channel for more info on how it works. That would be sick!

[@michaelgerdau6758]

Nice!! I bought a deburring tool, its awesome, use it all of the time. Thanks!

[@MakeItKustom]

Yea you can’t live without it now lol

[@anthonydavies6980]

Curious with the proper cutting set up if the scribed holes could be cut rather than drilled at the marks now.

[@chuckkellogg2404]

Damn nice seat design !!! 😁👍

[@rona1144]

Cool design. Maybe add a third layer around the back, like a frame to stiffen it, could be on the back so not to interfere with the look you have going.