[TheForge] English wheel update

[Chris Worsley]

Dave,
 "yanking it forwards and backwards" is not quite the method. It takes some
finesse and technique to do the job right. There are a variety of bottom
wheels with different radius' available for a variety of curves desired.
If you check Google for english wheel, you should find more info.
Here is one site:  http://www.metalcrafttools.com/engwheel.html

Chris
Alexandria VA

Dave Bendall wrote:

>      A while back some one was asking about English wheels. The other
> night on Motorcycle Mania, on the History (or learning?) channel on TV
> they showed a custom motorcycle shop in California, run by Jesse James,
> his real name. He made a cool custom motorcycle gas tank using an
> English wheel like this- he cut a long triangle out of thick aluminum
> sheet, hammered it cold on a bar stool sized lead shot pad, using a big
> ball pein that might have been a bodywork hammer. Then he took the
> concave triangle with these big giant pein-dents all over it to the
> English wheel. Picture a power hammer frame, but instead of anvil &
> sliding hammer, two steel wheels that meet, one above the other. The top
> wheel has a flat face, the bottom has a round face. There is a screw
> adjustment for the height of the bottom wheel, with spokes sticking out
> at the bottom of the screw that he could raise and lower the bottom
> wheel with his feet with. He just shoved the aluminum triangle between
> the two wheels, and yanked it forwards and backwards, tightening up the
> tension and squeezing the wheels together as he went. The round wheel
> just smoothed out all the bumps so nice, the part looked like it was
> stamped in a multi-ton press. Smooth and even and a perfect curve all
> over. This one part made the top section of his custom gas tank. Very
> cool.
>      Thus concludes my report on what the Heck an English wheel is and
> does.
>      Dave Bendall in Phoenix