How to Form Sheet Metal without a Roller

[@dannyl2598]

Thanks. I love all of the vintage equipment in your shop.

[@mikesawaya3508]

Great video. Your camera assistant did a great job.

[@housecopper]

I think so too!

[@terrypoffinbarger]

The first stake you used is called a blowhorn stake. An interesting name, I do believe that it was designed to make a tapered shape to form the front of brass horns like trumpets, trombones and etc. You need to clean the rust from your stakes, or tape a heavy weight paper over the rust. Then you can lay your metal over the stake and pull it back and forth to easily begin your round shape our press it into shape as you did. Your second stake, a hollow mandrel, and conductor stakes are additional options. Love all the space you have in your new shop. Thanks for the videos.. Yee Old Copper Smith in Rockford. P.S. one of these days all of my tinsmithing tools will be going up for sale, I'm now 80 and dealing with health issues. Thanks Terry Poffinbarger.

[@rickwarner516]

Well said

[@housecopper]

Yes, it is a blowhorn! I don't know if it was for making instruments - Bob always said it was for working cone shapes, like coffee pots and teakettles (which also have that steep cone shape). He has some old wood ones that pre-date the iron stakes, which are pretty cool. And YES I am behind on my annual cleaning of the stakes! You are so right! That's my new year project!! :) :) Please take care of yourself out there!

[@lees5073]

I always learn so much from you about my favorite cookware 😊

[@housecopper]

YAY thank you! I'm glad it helps and is helpful!

[@DianaGunderson-kv9ug]

Thank you!! I’m going to try and make myself a license plate purse and this helped me immensely!!!

[@housecopper]

Thrilled to hear it! Best of luck on your project!

[@punapeter]

So imagine brass 2-3 times thicker and chasing into a cone with no seams. My chalice was started on a tree stump with a carved out bowl in the middle of the heart wood. I guestimated it took 60 hours to form the bell. @7:25 instead of tapping with the hammer I thought you were just going to burnish it, with could have been done with the head, handle or block of wood. Have you ever done copper repoussé or repoussage? I do believe the first copper I ever chased when I was 8?, were the all copper pennies we put on the cable car tracks in S.F. We had to chase them down the hill.

[@housecopper]

I've always wanted to do repousse - I have seen it done at one of the convergences, but never had a chance to do it myself. It would be so fun!

[@punapeter]

@@housecopper It is, and cheap and easy to do. You'd love it, I'd put money on it.

[@keithrayeski6417]

Thank you for this. I hadn’t thought about copper…only tin…but copper could be fun as well. I’m not looking at a business…just to make personal use or friend and family gifts. A hobby, not an income. I’m looking for a fun hobby trade skill. I read that you do retining and copper restoration. I’m not really interested in that…but making some copper things would be interesting. I also prefer the old tools. You’ve got an impressive collection of tools!

[@housecopper]

I love my tools!!! :)

[@scottmcmunn5369]

How do you make a copper point for a lightning rod?

[@housecopper]

Oh boy. I don't know. I generally work in cookware, not electricity conductors! Maybe a really tight roll? Using a needlecase tinner's stake?

[@The_Bell_Tower]

So, when i was introduced to working with copper, i found that a rubber or rawhide mallet left very few marks, if any, on the metal. Not sure if that's the right way to do it or not, but it worked for a novice with inadequate instructions.

[@housecopper]

Yes! I use a lot of rawhide and rubber - and there are some nice synthetic plastic ones available too! Very smart to figure out on your own. Bravo!

[@The_Bell_Tower]

@@housecopper the worst part? I taught the instructor that.

[@didgeridooblue]

I was not able to get the Amazon link to work.

[@housecopper]

That's odd - I'm so sorry! I'll see if it needs fixing on my end! Thank you for the heads up!

[@punapeter]

Burnishing I suppose we use more with jewelry/metal smithing. Pushing gold solder with your breath through a blow pipe is really the apex of metalwork, even more so than wax-casting. IMHO

[@housecopper]

There is a very old method using a tiny flame with a glass kerosene lamp to solder...I have the tools but never did it. It's so putzy!

[@punapeter]

@@housecopper Well it help to be a wind instrumusician. I played a sax. I've use a kerosene lamp, and a bunsen burner, as well as a candle. One class at SFSU we had to make our own blow pipes, I still have one. It's good for tiny delicate gold soldering. Like beading around a bezels or setting stones. Copper is like in the middle of iron pours and gold filigree. Dental work uses a lot of jewelry technics in casting. and lead with copper and glass? You could set stones in the handles of your pots? I remember I did "Stone n' Bone" jewelry in the 70's. Elk horn butts with a stone set in it with inlay gold scrolly* embellishments around it. I've workedd in ALL mediums and what I like doing is combining them in ways I've not seen done by others. Started in HS, casting silver belt buckles and sewing up leather pants. In the 60's Zepplin days, you know. Imean I built my 32' Chevy truck and there was lots of metal fab there marrying it to an 85' GMC 4x4. lol But I love your videos, it's like putting me back in a classroom. I loved my younger fellow classmates when I went to different colleges and universities around the country. Learned a lot from them. Perspectives... My first one being in HS when I followed my parents up to their CC ceramics class when I was 8. I learned to throw pots when I was 8. BY HS I was a teach assistant. All I did was teach classmates to center on the wheel. So, copper, glass, ceramic or wood in one piece. Can you do it? I challenge you. 💜 Ceramiics can handle the heat more than glass and some metals. It's all minerals. We've slumped a lot of things. And now living on a volcano I can add molten lava. Aloha

[@jozefbubez6116]

Obviously much easier if you have a roller but what if you don't have a stake? About five years ago I managed making a small rubbish incinerator starting with a sheet of 0.8mm mild steel about 18" wide. The technique is to bend the material by hand very slowly until we have a complete circle. The finished diameter is about 12", circular to within 1/4" or thereabouts. As an aside, back in the 18th century with Newcomen's atmospheric engine, that's about the accuracy they reckoned on a good day! Happy metal rolling. Where there's a will, there's always a way!

[@housecopper]

If you don't have a stake, you just get some PVC pipe and clamp it to your workbench, and voila! Just makes sure the pipe is roughly the diameter you want to form. :)