You don't need much of an attachment on a stump, endgrain lags are not a problem.  I either weld on a couple of pieces of angle iron and drill a hole for  mounting lag bolts or weld to piece of plate that extends beyond the dishing form and drill holes---a nice sq piece can be lagged in each corner.

 

As for cutting I do all mine with a old industrial angle grinder with a metal cutting wheel in it.  I built a marker that rests on the bottom of the tank and holds a scribe to mark a nice line around the tank bottom.

 

The reason they are sold cut in half is to insure that tanks that have failed regular testing Cannot  be reused as pressure tanks!

Cheers for the replies.

Better still make a ring or tube base then you can drop any radius bowl former in depending on the shape you want to make.

 

Sorry, I'm not sure I completely understand you. When you say a "ring base" do you mean welding a ring around the hollow end of the canister, (hollow because it's been cut in half), as opposed to the pre-formed concave end? Do you have a pic to illustrate what you mean?

 

Thomas, what's a lag?

Lag= lag bolt, a coarse thread screw or bolt.

I have formed thin, your 2 or 3 mm steel sheet metal cold on a tamarisk stump without too much effort when I had somewhat more muscle mass than now. That's not all that thick but it does take some effort to forge it out cold and then you do need to heat it up every once in awhile so that it doesn't develop cracks. I liked working copper a lot better in those thicknesses than steel, much quieter, all on the stump and planished on a homemade ball stake.

Cheers Bentiron. Being the massively impatient person I am I wanted to give it a go yesterday, even though they're not yet mounted. I dished out some 6mm plate into the smaller canister to make a large ashtray, and have started dishing out some 4mm sheet into the bigger canister - maybe that can be a bird bath or something - I'm just playing/practicing and using up odds and ends of scrap I have.

 

I only have a little 4.5" angle grinder Thomas, I could give it a go cutting the canisters with it but it might take me till Christmas.

@ Kurgan, your 4.5' grinder with 1mm slitting discs would do it before this Easter no problem!

 

I dug out my bowl tools and made a video to show you my press tools at work in real time. It should give you an idea of the ring /tube support and the tools' efficiency. A small flypress and an hour or four making the tools and away you go!.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6aYzjaEffk

 

The system was originally made to sink the bowls for some gates I designed in 1983 at that time I only had a number 3 or 4 flypress and it coped fine with the 8mm (5/16") bowls.

 

The second video describes how they were made and attempts to explain why large / mushroom faced hammers or top tools are so very much more efficient than an ordinary full faced hammer as I mentioned briefly in my first post on this thread.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KcV_jkU4y8

 

In the videos I am only pushing in some bits and pieces I had kicking around, all from standard sheet or plate.

 

One of the big advantages of the system is that it could cope with plate/sheet that had been forged. I used to make a lot of shovels and chestnut roasters forged from a piece 16mm (5/8") square, I always liked to leave the rib marks from the spreading process visible but it did mean the sheet had thick and thin spots and sometimes (with an extra blow in the wrong place!) extremely thin bits which would buckle easily when the bowl was being formed.

 

Alan

Odd. When I clicked on post I had an error message saying that the SQL server had failed or something, but it then loaded twice?

 

The thread does not seem to have updated on the main forum list either...oo-er.

 

 

 

Alan

Something odd going on, with either the forum, my computer or my internet providers... my earlier posts do not seem to be registering properly. 

 

 

I attach a couple of images of a Chestnut Roaster bowl mentioned in the earlier post. This one was forged from 20mm diameter 316 ss and you should be able to see the rib marks from the spreading in the bowl close up.

 

S/S Chestnut Roaster

Edited November 12, 201312 yr by Moderator63
rotated pictures

Something odd going on, with either the forum, my computer or my internet providers... my earlier posts do not seem to be registering properly. 

 

 

I attach a couple of images of a Chestnut Roaster bowl mentioned in the earlier post. This one was forged from 20mm diameter 316 ss and you should be able to see the rib marks from the spreading in the bowl close up.

 

Alan Evans' SS Chestnut Roaster.jpg

Alan Evans' SS Chestnut Roaster bowl.JPG

 

Yeah, something is happening with your posts. When I came to the forum this morning it showed this bowl post as a new topic, or a topic with a enw reply, but when I came to the tools forum it was grayed out like I had read it already. It also shows that Kurgan was the last to post, when you're actually the last post listed.

Here's what I have set up on a temporary basis.  Would love to have a flypress, but the funds aren't there for one. 

 

I wish I could come up with the tooling to make them with my 20-ton hydraulic shop press, but I doubt I could make it work without having them crease.

 

Pictured is a 4" ladle bowl, I'm considering stepping up to the 6" bowl to have a little more space for my fingers.

 

The stump has a large area because I perform other duties on the surface as well and like the extra space.

 

 

NEVER stop Hunting!   My very large screwpress cost US$100 and like the bluebird of happiness it was found in my "backyard". (no shipping!)

How are you getting in with the bowls Joel?

here are some of the ones I supply, from 5" od to 11" aprox

I also have a couple of big shallow ones IIRC 17" dia and 11/2" deep made from 1" thick stainless, the hole in the middle has been ground now where a fitting was welded in place, 1/2" thick at the edge and 1" at the middle