as Im starting to make a proper effort to work on my Triumph Herald, I decided to have a bit of a tidy up and had a repair panel for a door and a big chunk of C section channel so decided to have a go at tuck forming. so I drilled a 3" diameter hole in the C panel and ended with this
rather a tree stump used for tuck forming or tuck shrinking. (if you dont know what I mean there are plenty of videos on youtube), you you can create the tuck in the hole and flatten the tuck on the flat section. The door panel was flattened and one edge was tuck shrinked. and ended up like this
the panel is about 6" wide and was just to see how it worked as I'll need to make a pair of inner wheel arches for my herald as shown below, which can be made in 2 pieces.
I'm suprised at how well it worked, but dont think I'll do it this was as I have a deep shrinker stretcher that I modified from a standard one
https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/deep-shrinker-stretcher.53923/
a few years ago I bought a benchtop english wheel from chronos, and back then I think it was about £120, but now they are just short of £200.
https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/info_52168200.html
thats after its had a few tweaks, and the the big wheel is 6" diameter and the small wheels are 2" diameter both are 1" wide. out of the box the fit of parts is appauling.
the nut on the bottom of the frame for raising the smaller wheel is not square with the frame so that was cut and tweaked to realign it and then welded up again. some nuts were also welded on the frame so that grub screws can be used to tighten up the support for the small wheel. the care on the thread rod was replaced with a wheel just as its more easier to use.
the threaded rod used to raise the lower wheel was extended and a nut put on the end so it can now be used to lower the lower wheel too. washers were also screwd to the saddle for the lower wheel to prevent lateral movement.
although the frame is still flexible it seemed to work pretty well for the tuck formed panel above
and came out pretty smooth. and as can be seen it is aslo suitable for getting shallow compound curves on smaller panels
and you can get radiused curves by using a tyre innertube over the larger wheel
and the radiused rollers
so my thoughts are that yes they do work as long as you dont expect miracles. they are simple enough to make, especially if you a lathe big enough to make the larger wheel (and are able to turn the radius on the smaller wheels). are they worth £200 probably not, and seemed to be better value when I got mine. but for smaller panels they might have a space in your workshop if you dont have the space for a full sized english wheel
and I know I should have used clean steel for the wheeling rather than the painted surface of the repair panel (which was going to be thrown away before I had a play with it)
rather a tree stump used for tuck forming or tuck shrinking. (if you dont know what I mean there are plenty of videos on youtube), you you can create the tuck in the hole and flatten the tuck on the flat section. The door panel was flattened and one edge was tuck shrinked. and ended up like this
the panel is about 6" wide and was just to see how it worked as I'll need to make a pair of inner wheel arches for my herald as shown below, which can be made in 2 pieces.
I'm suprised at how well it worked, but dont think I'll do it this was as I have a deep shrinker stretcher that I modified from a standard one
https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/deep-shrinker-stretcher.53923/
a few years ago I bought a benchtop english wheel from chronos, and back then I think it was about £120, but now they are just short of £200.
https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/info_52168200.html
thats after its had a few tweaks, and the the big wheel is 6" diameter and the small wheels are 2" diameter both are 1" wide. out of the box the fit of parts is appauling.
the nut on the bottom of the frame for raising the smaller wheel is not square with the frame so that was cut and tweaked to realign it and then welded up again. some nuts were also welded on the frame so that grub screws can be used to tighten up the support for the small wheel. the care on the thread rod was replaced with a wheel just as its more easier to use.
the threaded rod used to raise the lower wheel was extended and a nut put on the end so it can now be used to lower the lower wheel too. washers were also screwd to the saddle for the lower wheel to prevent lateral movement.
although the frame is still flexible it seemed to work pretty well for the tuck formed panel above
and came out pretty smooth. and as can be seen it is aslo suitable for getting shallow compound curves on smaller panels
and you can get radiused curves by using a tyre innertube over the larger wheel
and the radiused rollers
so my thoughts are that yes they do work as long as you dont expect miracles. they are simple enough to make, especially if you a lathe big enough to make the larger wheel (and are able to turn the radius on the smaller wheels). are they worth £200 probably not, and seemed to be better value when I got mine. but for smaller panels they might have a space in your workshop if you dont have the space for a full sized english wheel
and I know I should have used clean steel for the wheeling rather than the painted surface of the repair panel (which was going to be thrown away before I had a play with it)