Forming Stainless Steel

Not being a simple job is an understatement. Stainless work hardens, and quickly. In order to do that job successfully, it most likely would have to be done in a die set, in one fell swoop. Considerable stretching must occur in order for the material to assume the shape you desire, and it might prove to be nearly impossible by hand. Dunno.

I'm not suggesting you can't do it the way you described, but I think you'll find it will test you to the breaking point. You'll have to anneal the stainless several times. You can do that by heating it to a red heat, then quenching it in water, or even allowing it to air cool. If it's counter top material, it's likely 316, and it's not heat treatable, so all you'll be doing is removing the work hardened condition when you heat it.

Good luck! I'd enjoy hearing how it turns out-

Harold

There was a discussion on forming stainless sheet recently on the Yahoo group metalshapers If you do a search on that group for stainless you will find the discussion.

regards,

John

The original deck top has a

Around the dawn of time I worked at a place that made industrial washing machines from stainless steel. The radii were made by welding (Heliarc) a radiused section (imagine a pipe slit into quarters)to join the sides, and a preformed corner would be welded in. The welds would then be ground and polished. You couldn't see a seam.

Kevin Gallimore

Well, I decided to give it a try this afternoon. I borrowed an old

11X24.5 truck rim from a local trucking company to use as an anvil (almost perfect size) and I just swatted the edges down with a big rubber hammer, then worked them down with the 2 lb ball pien hammer untill I had the shape I wanted. I did not heat it at all, and it came out virtually perfect. It's a my friend's shop right now getting a square lip welded on the back and the center hole for the bearing spool plasma cut out. He's pretty busy these days with "paying jobs" so I may have to wait a few days - but I'll post some pix when I get it back. I'm having him cut me new skirts out of stainless as well, so I'll need to form the roll on the top edge of 40 some inches of stainless, and form it to the 24.5" radius as well - then drill it and pop-rivet all the parts to the tube frame.

In the meantime, I've got to wire brush the tube frame and five it a couple good coats of rust paint.

Way cool, and a much better turnout than I had expected. MUCH better. I've spun a little stainless with not great results, and figured you'd have about the same degree of success. Truth is, when you read stock lists, they talk about how stainless can be easily worked. I can only assume it's a skill that evades me.

I was particularly impressed with your inventiveness, using a rim for your form.

Congrats! Looking forward to the pics.

Harold

I'm nothing if not inventive! I worked / taught Auto Mechanics in Zambia in the early seventies - when NOTHING was readilly available. Many a "Zamfix".

Chuckle!

Yeah, from all indications, that's true.

Harold