Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Who loves ya Anna?

All the women in my life know I love them, even the inanimate ones. The eyebrow over the door has been bothering me for a while now. It was very beat up. The front edge had a few tears and looked more like a line drawing of the ocean surface than a smooth graceful curve like it should be. Yesterday, I took it upon myself to change that.

I drilled out all the rivets and took the old one off. I then used the cast iron table of my saw and dead blow hammer to revert it back to a flat sheet. The flattened eyebrow was then traced onto some new 2024 T0 That I bought from my one and only Aluminum supplier, http://www.airpartsinc.com/. Hope you all caught that "T0" for that is an important part of this project. "T0" denotes the hardness. If "T3" is used, it will be too hard and as you bend the flanges the possibility of breaking is huge.

I just marked it all out and started bending the front edge first. It is straight, but a very small lip. It just takes a little time to work the hand brake back and forth until it is going 90 degrees to the surface. I bent it 1/8" which is slightly larger than the original, but still looks good. The hand brake only has so much grip. Next I did the 3/8 flange on the curved edge. Lots of little bends are required here. This edge should not be rushed. Slowly the eyebrow will begin to curve all on it's own. Only a small amount of forming over my knee was needed to take it the rest of the way. Patience is the key. If you rush, it will crease over.

I only used two original holes. They were the two lowest down. I made certain to miss all the rest in my layout. Drilled, clecoed, and ready for vulkem and rivets.

Nice huh? I am very pleased with how it came out.

5 comments:

John Kwasnik said...

Sweet ass work, man. I'll bet you could sell them as fast as you make them, too. I've never seen a vintage unit with a straight one.

crowldawg said...

I was serious about the rivet question.I know you have bucked all the rivets you could and you have made it quite clear about how you feel about Olympics .I have a new refrigerator vent that has to be put on the roof.I want to use the best technique possible
tom

Frank Yensan said...

Tom the olympics work well but do not always seat right. As soon as they are shaved you will be able to tell by pushing the center slightly. If it did not set right the center shaft will sink slightly when pressed by a punch. not punched, but pressed slightly. If the shaft pulls out, one of the legs did not pull tight and has caused a premature set.

nmbosa said...

Frank, any chance you might sell me one of these? Mine is beat to hell and will have to be replaced during our restoration.

Lance said...

Nice work using the 0. Did you heat treat it to take it to t-3?