how we make smooth spare tire covers

[cornfield customs]

This was a fun little project and we documented it well with pics so i figured i would share.

here is the spare the customer needs a smooth cover made for. he already has the band that goes around the tread part of the tire



after measuring and laying everything out i started shrinking over the edge on the power hammer







marking where to shrink more on the edges





all the shrinking done



starting to blend and planish










then i use the lennox to tighten and refine the radius






after a handful of passes on the lennox





installing the band



grinding down the weld after welding up the center pivot hole



some light shrinking with a shrinking disc in some spots



all finished out with a DA and ready to ship

 

[BD1]

That’s awesome work !

 

[Bighead38]

Love reading cornfield threads.

 

[Richard Cranium]

very talented

 

[Bears Fan]

That's awesome! That took some serious talent to pull off! Nice shop and cool tools too

Okay! I have to ask, is the third one over from the left on the shelf what I think it is?

 

[red94chev]

So cool! I wish I was closer so I could take one of your metal shaping classes.

 

[Lonnies Performance]

Awesome work, but I have to ask.... How long did that take you to finish?

 

[lakeroadster]

Awesome work! Old world craftsmanship at it's finest.

Reminds me of the flanged and dished heads we used for pressure vessels.

Many of those are made by spinning them on a lathe.

Just a tad bit more hi tech... with some crazy expensive equipment...

Brighton True Edge Heads... http://brightontruedge.com/

 

[doctordirt]

Nice job!

 

[cornfield customs]

Awesome work, but I have to ask.... How long did that take you to finish?

it was about 7 hours total including making the lennox tooling

 

[The Cobbler]

awesome. and here I was thinking there was going to be body filler involved.

 

[matt_i]

Great work! If you don't mind, what gauge of material does this start out as?

 

[cornfield customs]

Great work! If you don't mind, what gauge of material does this start out as?

we use 19 gauge dds-ak

 

[Gummi Bear]

That’s a skill set that I really am impressed with.

Super cool stuff!



I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...

Henry David Thoreau

 

[Lonnies Performance]

it was about 7 hours total including making the lennox tooling

That's a lot of work, but much faster than I thought.

I can only imagine what it takes to build a car body. It fascinates me that a body can be built without the use of body filler, which would be the easy way out.

I've been eyeing up an english wheel & planishing hammer as future shop tools so this really got my attention.

 

[joeswamp]

That's a lot of work, but much faster than I thought.

I can only imagine what it takes to build a car body. It fascinates me that a body can be built without the use of body filler, which would be the easy way out.

Those big power hammers with thumbnail shrinking dies are massive productivity amplifiers. I believe it was this guy:

who said he could make a Cobra body in about a week. Obviously you need to know what you're doing, but clearly this guy has done it a few times before!

 

[cornfield customs]

Those big power hammers with thumbnail shrinking dies are massive productivity amplifiers. I believe it was this guy:

who said he could make a Cobra body in about a week. Obviously you need to know what you're doing, but clearly this guy has done it a few times before!

i have known mark for years and he tends to embellish a little. you could rough ( and i mean rough) out a cobra body in a week. not 40 hours but about 100. the roughing out is the easy fast part.

 

[pgk]

Dang! That's awesome man, looks like some specialized equipment ya got there, and the skills to use them.

Pete

 

[joeswamp]

i have known mark for years and he tends to embellish a little. you could rough ( and i mean rough) out a cobra body in a week. not 40 hours but about 100. the roughing out is the easy fast part.

Interesting, curious if you agree with my statement that the power hammer is the key to high productivity -- this is what I've been told. Fay Butler (a big power hammer guy) has said that using a wheeling machine is like filling a swimming pool with a teaspoon.

OTOH, Geoff Moss (English guy who is amazing with the wheel) said that at Aston Martin you could make a fender in less than a day after you'd made several. Not sure if they even used power hammers back in the hand-made days.

Please keep posting your stuff, it's really inspiring to us mortals.

 

[cornfield customs]

Interesting, curious if you agree with my statement that the power hammer is the key to high productivity -- this is what I've been told. Fay Butler (a big power hammer guy) has said that using a wheeling machine is like filling a swimming pool with a teaspoon.

OTOH, Geoff Moss (English guy who is amazing with the wheel) said that at Aston Martin you could make a fender in less than a day after you'd made several. Not sure if they even used power hammers back in the hand-made days.

Please keep posting your stuff, it's really inspiring to us mortals.

i would not say a power hammer is the end all be all key to high productivity, it can be in the right hands. i feel that with different people there are different ways peoples brain can process and work with either hammer, wheels, or hand tools. it all depends on what people are used to and makes sense to them. you get guys like fay that think your not a metal shaper unless you have a yoder k90, and other guys that think the wheel is the same way. i feel that each tool has its place and its limits to use. thats why i have both and even more at my disposal. there are times when a panel can be worked faster by me with a stump and mallet and finished on the hammer instead of straight hammer work. i would rather be well versed in many types of shaping to help me work out issues with parts as i go. i am a huge believer in power hammers, i owe a lot of my success to them, but i could accomplish the same things with out one. it would just be slower for a while since it is not my main go to like the hammer is

 

[rpcraft]

And here I was just using an old Choco chip desert storm Alice pack cover....

 

[bonneyman]

Freaking a great job!