How To Use Dollys To Straighten Out Sheet Metal

Using wood you eliminate one of those hard points so the metal can move without stretching.

How to use dollys to straighten out sheet metal.

Working quickly bump the high area down with the hammer while supporting the neighboring low area with the dolly fig. It may result in too much shrinkage but we know how to deal with that. Any time you hit sheet metal with steel hammer against a steel dolly it stretches. George just barely touched on a key concept.

Very important do not let the dolly rebound onto the metal. Work the metal until the area temperature falls to normal because the metal continues to shrink until it is cool to the touch. Mark simpson explains the process of using a hammer and dolly set to remove dents and straighten metal. Working on the dolly is the use of a back up block directly behind the point you are hammering on.

Fabricators generally use locksmith hammers light metal hammers mallets streaming hammers and rubber hammers to straighten the metal. Heating localized areas and then using a hammer and dolly to. This technique stretches the metal. The best is to use heat a wood hammer and a dolly.

You also have to grasp the fact that you can reduce the area of sheet metal by thickening 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. A wood hammer is a good way to go but sometimes you need a wood dolly or buck. Matt goes over the differences in the shapes of the fairmount hammers dollies.

Body files are usually used after another age old process has been used to straighten or shrink sheetmetal. Plus tips and tricks for using them. They place the metal on either an anvil or a straightening plate. Understanding how metal deforms is the first step toward straightening it.

Fabricators heat metal so it does not have as much tension when the fabricator uses force to straighten out the metal. This will tighten up that specific spot.