The Blister

Hi All,

This week we'll be using a female hammer form to create a shape that could be used to streamline a part that protrudes from a larger overall shape; its called the Blister.

Theory, Russell:

In hammer forming you'll often see two sheets of wood clamped together. On occasion you'll see the sheets bolted together, with the bolts also passing through the metal. This is what is shown in the image below:

Sonia Cunningham's Blister from the top and bottom and out of the form

Paige Kodesh, a BEIL0014 student from last year, wrote a great tutorial on how to create a blister using this method and included some possible applications. See that here.

Paige Kodesh's step by step images that accompanied her tutorial.

Follow this link to see the steps another person went through to achieve a much more complicated shape and finished result below:

Finally, think about creating some tools from scrap wood so you can get into the tight ends of the teardrop shape.

This image shows a corking tool for getting into the edges that you cant reach with an ordinary hammer (note wood also doesn't mark the material up like metal tools do, saving you time in the long run).

CNC Cutting, Edward Iverach:

The faculty has two full sheet CNC cutting machines in the design lab. Edward Iverach is our local expert on setting them up and cutting files. You can download a copy of the files we will be cutting here. If you have other shapes you'd like to cut for other projects make sure you talk to Ed before preparing the files so you have the best chance of success!

Cutting using the digital Table Saw, Martin:

Martin will demonstrate the new digital table saw we have in the workshop when he cuts the full sized sheets down to manageable pieces.

Corking tools, Gabe:

Gabe will demonstrate various workshop tools and techniques for creating corking tools that can be used to fine tune your work.  

Metal Shaping, Daniel:

The video below is an excellent demonstration of hammer forming and shows how the sheet metal is clamped to a form so the material doesn't move when you are hammering into it.


 

You'll see why we will be using a thick sheet of wood on both the the top and the bottom of the work piece (so we don't get the wrinkles he gets). In his case the wrinkled part is going to be cut off so it wasn't a problem; so keep that in mind if you'll be doing the same in the future. This crafts person has a lot of videos, well worth watching.

The person below uses a modified air powered rivet gun to speed up the process.