Flatten Smooth Sheet Metal Hammering

Mark both a vertical and a horizontal line through the centers of the sheet.

Flatten smooth sheet metal hammering. Planish means to flatten smooth or polish metal by rolling or hammering. Tape the four corners down with painter s tape or masking tape. Place the sheet on a clean flat smooth steel block. Shaped plastic mallets used with shot bag backing is a particularly effective hand forming combination.

A simple small dent on a flat or gently curved panel is the easiest to remove and as long as the backside of the panel can be accessed the dent can be erased using a hammer and dolly hammering. That is almost too thin to call sheet metal. Keep the hammer bobbing in a straight up and down motion and just turn the metal piece. Every autobody practitioner has some favorite backing surface for hammering metal.

First anneal the sheet then grip the sheet between two sheets of 1 8 thick flat stock steel sheet gripped tightly using steel g clamps then anneal the steel sheets until they are dull red and let it cool without quenching. Hold the hammer lightly in your palm and let it bounce off the metal in a fluid motion. It s more like foil. The process of planishing uses many light blows to smooth metal which has already been formed by some other means.

Wet metal causes tool rust and oxides on the metal will become embedded into the sheet during hammer texturing. This provides relatively smooth forming and controlled stretching in the same operation. Just a very smooth block of half inch stock or even a flat hammer face will do. Hammer each blow with equal effort for uniform marks or textures.

As you hammer metal on a shot bag it dishes out. Proceed across creating an even row of marks. You won t really need an anvil. Another way would be to use a vice to press the strips between two smooth flat blocks.

Hammer across the sheet in one direction. A polished flatter and a polished anvil block might do it for you.