Hydroforming shops

Richard Lamb wrote in message ...
Forming any -O material is not difficult at all.
But in that condition, the parts are not very useful either,
at least for structural purposes.

Whatcha making, Gary?


Richard

The inner skins for landing gear doors. The outer skin is flat and made out
of -T3.

I intend on having the finished parts heat treated to -T4 but first I've
got to figure out how to form them. The male hydroform die was easy to
make the hard part is find a place with the capability to form them and
the willingness to do a small run for a reasonable price.

GaryP

If you really want to hydroform parts, and you live in the vicinity of
Portland, OR, then go to Usher Enterprises in North Plains. They do the
hydroforming for Van's.

You shouldn't hydroform the parts however, you should form them by hand.
All you need is a plastic mallet, a ball peen hammer and lead straps
about 1" x ½" x 18" (in addition to the formblocks you've already made.
I presume you included a 3° springback angle in your formblock). I
made these coaming formers out of 5052-H-32 by hammering it over a cheap
and dirty plywood formblock:

http://home.teleport.com/~guy_noir/i...ng/coaming.JPG

After I formed the first part, I shaved the formblock down about .050 to
make the opposing former so it would nest into the first former.

These photos show a couple parts I reverse engineered from mylars so I
could use a waterjet to cut formblocks. The parts themselves are hand
formed over the formblocks.

http://home.teleport.com/~guy_noir/i...og%20frame.jpg
http://home.teleport.com/~guy_noir/i...tures%2037.jpg
http://home.teleport.com/~guy_noir/i...tures%2038.jpg

This is a series of photos showing the procedure for forming a part used
on Noon Patrol Nieuports. After forming, the parts were heat treated
(7075 T-6).

http://www.eaa292.org/noon_patrol/jan_00.html


GaryP wrote:
Richard Lamb wrote in message ...

Forming any -O material is not difficult at all.
But in that condition, the parts are not very useful either,
at least for structural purposes.

Whatcha making, Gary?


Richard


The inner skins for landing gear doors. The outer skin is flat and made out
of -T3.

I intend on having the finished parts heat treated to -T4 but first I've
got to figure out how to form them. The male hydroform die was easy to
make the hard part is find a place with the capability to form them and
the willingness to do a small run for a reasonable price.

GaryP

--
John Kimmel


"Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum." - When you have
their full attention in your grip, their hearts and minds will follow.

From: John Kimmel
Date: 7/19/2004 10:25 PM Central Daylight Time
Message-id:

If you really want to hydroform parts, and you live in the vicinity of
Portland, OR, then go to Usher Enterprises in North Plains. They do the
hydroforming for Van's.

You shouldn't hydroform the parts however, you should form them by hand.
All you need is a plastic mallet, a ball peen hammer and lead straps
about 1" x ½" x 18" (in addition to the formblocks you've already made.
I presume you included a 3° springback angle in your formblock). I
made these coaming formers out of 5052-H-32 by hammering it over a cheap
and dirty plywood formblock:

http://home.teleport.com/~guy_noir/i...ng/coaming.JPG

After I formed the first part, I shaved the formblock down about .050 to
make the opposing former so it would nest into the first former.

These photos show a couple parts I reverse engineered from mylars so I
could use a waterjet to cut formblocks. The parts themselves are hand
formed over the formblocks.

http://home.teleport.com/~guy_noir/i...og%20frame.jpg
http://home.teleport.com/~guy_noir/i...tures%2037.jpg
http://home.teleport.com/~guy_noir/i...tures%2038.jpg

This is a series of photos showing the procedure for forming a part used
on Noon Patrol Nieuports. After forming, the parts were heat treated
(7075 T-6).

http://www.eaa292.org/noon_patrol/jan_00.html



How did you heat treat the parts?

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

John Kimmel wrote in message ...
[snip]
You shouldn't hydroform the parts however, you should form them by hand.
All you need is a plastic mallet, a ball peen hammer and lead straps
about 1" x ½" x 18" (in addition to the formblocks you've already made.
[snip]

Thanks for the pictures and advice John. I have a curved panel to restore
out of 5052-H32 that I will try this technique on. Where did you get those
plastic ended tools for your air hammer? I've not seen those before.

My gear doors are deeply dished with an uninterupted flange. Very difficult
to hand form since the metal is both drawn and compressed. The examples
you've shown appear to have less compound bends although the 2D pictures
may hide some of the complexity. I've tried forming 2024 before with a
dead-blow hammer and found it work hardening and kinking before the
piece was completed. Perhaps the air-hammer technique will yield better
results.

GaryP

The air hammer is only faster, not better. I don't have any experience
forming complex parts out of sheetmetal. The basic theory, from what
I've read (mostly in Sport Aviation) is: You hit the metal with a
hammer until it looks like what you want.

The plastic air hammer sets are home made blocks of uhmw with a hole
drilled in them to slip over an ordinary rivet set. It's noisy, hard on
wrists and hands and you still have to slap the part with a lead strap
and knock down the high spots with a ball peen hammer to make it look good.

Some day I want to get a shot bag and a ball peen hammer and play around
and see what I can come up with.

GaryP wrote:


Thanks for the pictures and advice John. I have a curved panel to restore
out of 5052-H32 that I will try this technique on. Where did you get those
plastic ended tools for your air hammer? I've not seen those before.

My gear doors are deeply dished with an uninterupted flange. Very difficult
to hand form since the metal is both drawn and compressed. The examples
you've shown appear to have less compound bends although the 2D pictures
may hide some of the complexity. I've tried forming 2024 before with a
dead-blow hammer and found it work hardening and kinking before the
piece was completed. Perhaps the air-hammer technique will yield better
results.

GaryP

--
John Kimmel


I think it will be quiet around here now. So long.

I gave them to the guy who does the heat treating at the place where I
used to work.

How did you heat treat the parts?

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

--
John Kimmel


I think it will be quiet around here now. So long.