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January 24, 2004

Buffing Stand Construction, Part II

As practice, I decided to build a small tray for the buffing stand out of a sheet of 16-gauge metal. Let me tell you something: without a sheetmetal brake, 16-gauge metal is EXTREMELY hard to bend accurately. I did treat this as a learning experience, however, practicing some of the metal forming techniques I've been reading about. In fact, even though this is just a metal stand and not part of the actual restoration, I feel that doing it as if it were part of the restoration will only improve my skills when it comes time for the real deal.

I cut out the corners of the rectangular sheet of steel to make
the sides of the box. Then I placed it in the vise and bent the sides.
For the long side, I used two pieces of 1/4" steel that were about the
same length and bent the metal over them. Once they were close,
I used a piece of channel iron, which was exactly the same width
and height, to tap the corners into sharp creases. It was harder than
you'd think and I found that light taps work much better than brute force.

Once I had it bent to the shape I wanted, I cleaned it up and welded
the corners inside the tray. They turned out pretty well.

Then I welded the tray to the stand in a convenient
place, but not so that it would get in the way of buffing
long pieces of stainless Buick trim.

Tomorrow I'll paint it.

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E-mail me at toolman8@sbcglobal.net

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Last modified on 02/06/2005

Thanks, Fidget!