Sheet Metal Skin Tutorial 2

Tutorial video 1 https://youtu.be/mCjjmedF33Q


In this video, I have summerized the starting point of your sheet metal skin making process. The tools you need are a sandbag and a nylon bossing mallet. Using the back part the mallet, which is a rounded shape, hammering the center of the skin really hard in order to stretch out the center. 


Tutorial video 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKbr28WYnwI

This video shows after you stretching out the center part, in order to get a curved shape, you have to use the different mushroom dollies depend on the sizes of you metal and a wood hammer with a flattened head. 
 
Tips: The right hammer is really important, it will save you a lot times while you are at the right track. Because the curved shapes are more fragile that any other form, you have to avoid using iron hammer or Nylon bossing mallet. The ideal hammer would be the wood one with flattened head. 

Tutorail video 3 https://youtu.be/eBxb_LJZA7Q

In this video, I've show you some basic techniques while you are forming the skin. At the beginning, a good start would be bring down the edges by the wood hammer in a gentle way. You would like to avoid hammering the center part. You have to keep hitting the edges in order to achieve a ideal and beautiful shape. The other important thing is worth to notice is that when you cut the metal, do not cut it through every time. You wanna cut it carefully otherwise it would leave some ugly edges. If you have the ugly edges while you are hammering the metal, it will have some cracks between the metal. 
Please stop hammering immediately and then cut out some edges around those cracks, otherwise it would getting bigger and damaging your model in the end and you have to restart it all over again.  


Experiences that I have learned from this course:

1. Always start earlier, do not leave things until last minute. You wanna find out what model you wanna do at the beginning of the semester. 

2. The skills do not just comes along. You need to learn it and perfected it from different times of experiments. This is why I say you should start early. The sheet metal requires time to do it.

3. Always ask questions from your tutor or other stuff from the lab. You will help you understand some basic techniques and solve many problems for you while you are overwhelmed at the first place.

4. Good luck and have fun!!       

Sheet Metal Skin Tutorial 1

Preparation 

Step 1: The first important thing that you have to do is choose an object that has a strong relationship with you architectural life but from my experiences, you would have to avoid the object with white or other pure colors. The better one you choose with rougher surface will be performed better with the leaser cut model.  

Step 2: Once you've choose the model, use 123D Catch and 123D Make to generate the 3D model. For more details I recommend you read through my project 1 process carefully. It contains the most information that you need during this step.

Step 3: Now, you have the 3D model with you, get into the lan and have some fun! Before you start any experimentation, I would like to introduce some basic tools that you'll use a lot in the lab.

Metal Cutting Machine 

The metal cutting machine enables you cut the sheet metal properly while you standing on the machine and push it down. Be careful with you hands!!!

This little one enables you cut the sheet metal from a curved or other shapes in case your model is not a square shape and most of us do. So we can use this one a lot. Tips:every time you cut the metal, do not cut it through otherwise it will leave a tiny little gap on it. It will getting bigger and will not looking decent for your later experimentation.

Mushroom steel dome dolly

The mushroom dollies are used to form curves by hammering the metal with a hammer or a slapper over the rounded part of the dolly. These dollies are smoothly polished to prevent damaging the material while you are forming. 

Tapered Steel T-DollyThese tools are help you to form the flanges and edges of your model.Typically use the round part for smaller edges of your model. 

Nylon Bossing Mallet

Nylon Bossing mallets are manufactured from high impact nylon with a hickory wooden handle for extreme durability and are specifically designed for roughing in your work during the early stages of metal shaping and typically used in conjunction with a shot bag. Made from a nearly indestructible non-marking material, these bossing mallets have two radius ends for added usefulness and practicality. 

Round leather sand bags

Thick grain leather bag for extended life and blemish free metal surface. These bags have suede outer surface for forming and a extremely tough inner surface to resist abrasive wear from media, also includes a reinforced hook & loop seal for easy adjustment of the fill to suit your requirements and the ability to change to different media such as lead shot.

   

Project 2: Final Experimentations

     

FIRST EXPERIMENTATION 

SECOND EXPERIMENTAION 

Project 2 :Chosen Object - Badmintion

The chosen object is a badminton,which is from another discipline- interior architecture. The reason of why I chose this one is that this object is quite different compare to the last project I did and this one is harder to make. As it got more curved surface and bended in various angels. The eight images show above are the process that I making out the aluminium skin.  

Final Experimentation: The Sheet Metal Skin Photos

Final Experimentation : The Sheet Metal Skin

From the last time's failure, I learned basic skills of how to shrink down the sheet metal.  I started to stretch out the lump by hammering from the inside of the metal on a sandbag.  Then I used the special hammer with a flat head and hit the edges gently on a iron ball. As I hit it the problem also comes along, because I didn't cut a curve shape instead of having a semi-curve shape at the first place so the flat part of the metal having a sharp angle coming out from itself. Thus, I cut off the excessive part in order to fit the model,which just like the second image shows above.

Because of the hair dryer's characteristic, I have to do a lot of shrinking to fit into the model, especially for the frontal part of the model. I found its extremely hard when I was doing this. The key part was that remember to hit the metal with uniform strength since it requires balance for each side.  

         

I have to say, the second experiment was performed much better than the first one. I have gradually adapted some possible ways to fit into the template. This effort also helped by a lot of people in the design lab. Although the metal skin still has some problems and isn's perfectly fit into the model but I believe I will do better for the next project as my experiences, skills and knowledges improved through many times of practices.  

Experimentation 1: The Sheet Metal Skin

This is my first experiment, seems to me its nothing but an awkward shape. Its harder than I thought it would be. I was trying to make a shape that can perfectly match with the top of the hair dryer and the handle as well, but due to my awful skill, its not even close a little bit. I cut out the hair dryer shape at the first place from a piece of sheet metal with thickness of 1.0mm. Then I hammering the edges around the maker lines and then the problem came. As the shape is a little bit tricky, when I hit the two sides of the edges, the other two parts automatically lifted up. Its really hard to control the aluminium adhere. 

After the first failure, I deiced to adopted another way to fit the hair dryer. I was trying to create an aluminium adhere from the head of the hair dryer. But after the experiment, I found its even impossible to bend the metal like that. 

Again, I change the way back. but with limited experiences and skills, I have problem of how to shrink down all the edges in order to cover the hair dryer. Same issue happened just like the first time I did,when I tried to shrink down, the shape even deform more.

At the end of the day, all the aluminimum skins were like some jokes that placing in front of me due to the limited experience and knowledge but I believe practice is a good step for reaching to  a higher standard.