All set to implement my plan to start on the sheet metal that covers the buck, I went to the metal supermarket to buy what I needed.
The plan was to cover the back in 9 sections. Each section would be bent to follow the buck from bottom to top. Each section would overlap, and the overlap would be cut through to allow for a perfect fitting butt joint for welding.
That was the plan at least.
I still bought the 9 sections. I also had them cut each section 7" x 28". (9) 18 ga. sections, cut to size ended up costing 64 bucks.
When I got home, I bolted my handy-dandy HF sheet metal brake to the work bench, and went about bending the first piece. Not really having any sort of guide to follow, I just winged it.
The "bump" in the middle was a real pain in the ass, and could not be completely bent on a brake. That short little piece between angles was the problem. Consequently, it meant that one of those angles had to be bent by hand over the corner of the bench.
And while it fit pretty damn good considering....
I couldn't duplicate it. I soon realized that there was no way I'd be able to duplicate the others closely enough to even have a prayer of using them as planned. The very next piece I bent was different enough to not even be usable. Because of that hand bent angle in the middle of the thing, there is no real way to clone the things over, so I'm gonna have to come up w/ an alternate plan.
The plan was to cover the back in 9 sections. Each section would be bent to follow the buck from bottom to top. Each section would overlap, and the overlap would be cut through to allow for a perfect fitting butt joint for welding.
That was the plan at least.
I still bought the 9 sections. I also had them cut each section 7" x 28". (9) 18 ga. sections, cut to size ended up costing 64 bucks.
When I got home, I bolted my handy-dandy HF sheet metal brake to the work bench, and went about bending the first piece. Not really having any sort of guide to follow, I just winged it.
The "bump" in the middle was a real pain in the ass, and could not be completely bent on a brake. That short little piece between angles was the problem. Consequently, it meant that one of those angles had to be bent by hand over the corner of the bench.
And while it fit pretty damn good considering....
I couldn't duplicate it. I soon realized that there was no way I'd be able to duplicate the others closely enough to even have a prayer of using them as planned. The very next piece I bent was different enough to not even be usable. Because of that hand bent angle in the middle of the thing, there is no real way to clone the things over, so I'm gonna have to come up w/ an alternate plan.