HAMMERFORMING A COUPLE OF PARTS

I’m hammerforming this part to go around the roll bar at so I have a spot to tig weld the body support bar. I will make two, one for each side. They will be held on with the engine mount bolts that are vertically throught the bulk head and go into the aluminum plate that actually bolts to the valve cover. The engine in this chassis is partially stressed, meaning the engine block itself carries some of the load stresses induced into the chassis during competition

To soften or anneal the aluminum (it's a T6 hardness so it's tough) so I can work with it I put a layer of acetylene soot on it. This is .065 6061 aluminum.

Now heat the aluminum very carefully, just enough to remove the soot. This will take it to about 750 -800 deg! The aluminum is very close to melting so be carefull.

Soot is gone the aluminum sagged because it was so close to meltdown!

Now it's relatively easy to shap around the wood block I made for the final shape. The block is exactly the proper dimensions as the area of the rool bar.

Here it's easier to see the shape I made relative to the roll bar. The form has to be exactly the same dimensions, since the aluminum will wrap around it.

Final shape, this will fit exactly.

another view, easier to see.

 

Hammerformed the aluminum using the hard wood tool I made. The wood is a hard maple.