First Post - Forming Heads

[wynlaidig]

Hi, I'm new to metalmeet. My son and I have recently gotten deeper and deeper into British car restoration. We just took an excellent sheetmetal & welding class from eclecticmotors.com and now are looking around for some tooling. The first thing I'd like to get is a few forming heads. I was going to build my own stand, but am looking for a good source of new or used heads. They seem to run about $130 each from Eastwood and TPTools. Does any one know where I can get some cheaper, or perhaps used? Also are there any plans out there for a stand? Thanks!

[Gene_Olson]

A lot of forming can be done from the inside of the panel on a flat table.
That said, I like my forming head/stakes.

Keep your eyes open. the tops of old cyl caps make good surfaces to beat on.

There are all sorts of odd shaped pieces out there that can be used as forming heads. (big old pipe elbows from the secrap yard, an old industrial linkage of some sort . . . Use your imagination.

[tdoty]

Ya might take a look at Dagger Tools also : http://www.daggertools.com (http://www.daggertools.com/) .

Tim D.

[FriarTuck]

Welcome Wyn (I'm guessing at the name)
Send to PM to "NOSIRE", that's Bob Erison, he casts his own really nice forming stakes. He had a bunch at MM05, and he may have some left. Other than that, Tim already told you about Craig at Daggar Tools. His stakes are really nice, and a lot cheaper than Eastwood, and he is a member here, and a big supporter of MetalMeet.

Tuck

[geoking]

Trident tools in Canada has a nice set and gives you a free drawing to make the stand out of 2x2 tubing. You can buy with the surface rough cheap and do yourself or pay extra

also ,,,,search stakes on ebay You may also want to acquire a Pexto stake holder/ plate... search Pexto

Make your own...its kind of fun searching for shapes...a piece of railroad track
is easy to find and is easy for a small anvil conversion or shape change
a set of LARGE ball bearings gets you a graduated set of sizes and have great finishes to limit your efforts... used sledge hammer heads at the flea market are good...

SO when advised to use your imagination.... every time you are out and about
you should keep in mind what shapes and sizes you would like.
another thing I have watched mt friend Dan Shady do alot of is to modify body hammers. Cut and weld different profiles and create hammers for that special need.

most of all...have fun!
some of us like tools but do not know how to use them... but having them makes us happy

[Avalonjr]

I'm amazed at the shapes I find at the side of the highways around here. As long as its safe to jump out of the car and grab it, I do. Its free and sometimes just what I need. Junk yards have amazing collections of machine parts, odd castings and tools. It is impressive to have an array of stakes, but more fun to have a set with "history". :)