Here’s a message left by a certain fella called Ron looking for help with the following:

Nice information!
In the past I have built my own hydraulic press brake 60 Ton X 4 ft wide. I utilized dual ram’s salvaged from a catipiller, I utilized hydraulic dual selonoid valves to allow balance and stop control, not fancy but served the purpose up to 1/2″ plate and more.

I am looking for drawings of a similar press but with a professional touch. Are there professional drawings available?
The previous home built press handled only 4 Ft. width, my intentions are to build a six or eight foot press brake this time around! Is their any one out there that can help me with drawings of such?
I will share pictures if any one is interested!
Thank you for any help I receive from other like minded individuals!

You can email Ron at snyder[@]wispnet[dot]net - don’t forget to remove the brackets and change the dor to an actual dot as in period/full stop .

It appears as though he’s looking for something a bit more substantial than the last press brake project I posted.

Following on from the same lady who gave us the antique sheet metal tools, we also have the list of sheetmetal fabrication books dating from as early as 1907.

Here’s the listing of the books as it was provided to me in the email:

Antique books

1. sheet metal

a) Sheet Metal Work; Neubecker; approx 1912; fair cond.; sections include: tools and methods of obtaining patters, workshop problems, skylights, roofing, cornice work, index. 263pgs

b) [Practical] Exhaust and Blow Piping, a treatise on the planning and installing of fan-piping in all its branches; W. H. Hayes; 3rd ed. 1922 [copyright 1918]; The Sheet Metal Publication Company, New York; excellent cond.; chapters include: connecting dust separator and feeder, constructing the feeder nozzle and switch, designs for hoods and sweepers…; 200pgs

c) Sales catalogue for roofers and sheet metal workers; LD Berger, merchant and manufacturer, tinners’ and roofers’ supplies, 59 2nd st. Philadelphia; 1914; poor to fair cond; includes pictures, descriptions, and pricing for a wide variety of tools and sheet metal products, cornices; 255pgs

d) Warm Air Heating and Winter Air Conditioning; The Lennox Furnace Company; 1948; good to excellent cond.; chapters: different types of heating systems describedk designing a gravity warm air heating system, industrial and commercial wramair installations; good to excellent cond; 285pgs

e) Practical Sheet Metal Work and Demonstrated Patterns; Volume III – skylights; a comprehensive treatise in several volumes on shop and outside practice and pattern drafting; 1911; good cond; David Williams Company, New York; chapters: Making flat skylights; a novel method of building a double pitch skylight with gable ends; pattern for a valley bar, a turret skylight, details of a lifting sash…; 114pgs

f) Practical Sheet Metal Work and Demonstrated Patterns; Volume V – Cornice Patterns; a comprehensive treatise in several volumes on shop and outside practice and pattern drafting; 1911; good cond.; David Williams Company, New York; Chapters: Pattern for a Head to fill the end of a cornice cut off obliquely, pattern for mullion intersecting gable mold; pediment chart, pattern for a miter a different angles, pattern for bottom on bay window…; 112pgs.

g) The New Metal Worker Pattern Book, a treatise on the principles and practice of pattern curring as applied to sheet metal work; Geo W. Kittredge, David Williams Co. New York; 1907 [copyright 1896]; fair to poor condition; contents: terms and definintions, drawing instruments and materials, linear drawing, geometrical problems, principles of pattern cutting, pattern problems; 421pgs.

h) Standard Practice in Sheet Metal Work; National Association Sheet Metal Contractors, a reference book compiled for the use of architects, engineers, sheet metal contractors, installers of warm aair heating systems, and vocational training schools; by the trade development committee of the national association of sheet metal contractors of the U.S.; 1929; very good condition; Sections: roofing, gutters, skylights and ventilators, metal cornices, metal ceilings, blow pipe and exhaust systems…; 767pgs.

I don’t have any pictures of these, but I suppose some could be arranged if need be. I’d appreciate anybody who has any knowledge or interest in these to get in touch and I’ll pass your information on.

Three or so weeks ago I was contacted by a lady who’d inherited her grandfather’s entire set of sheet metal tools and has had them in her garage since he passed away 30 years ago. She’s not only wondering what’s what, but would also like to determine how much, if anything, they’re worth. She could very well be prepared to donate all or part of the collection to a museum if somebody was interested.

I’ve uploaded all the tool pictures to a flickr account and there’s 70 pictures (by my bad mathematic reckoning) of all manner of old school sheet metal tools including snips, pliers, calipers, saws, drills, tapes, set squares and a host of other bits and bobs - in fact, you can check the entire sheet metal tool collection out here.

If anybody knows exactly which certain tools are which and/or what they may be worth, please feel free to leave a comment under any of the corresponding photos.

Now I’m not on any kind of cut and nor are we necessarily trying to sell them off. We’d just like to get as much information on the collection as possible.

I also have the lady’s email address for anybody who’d like to get in touch with her personally.

Thanks.

I got an email yesterday from a young upstart after a spot of sponsorship for himself and his mates to help them build a middleweight combat robot for RoboGames.

I presume he’s not meaning one of these fellas.

As his email goes:

Hello, my name is Trent Brown. I’m a 15 year old Homeschool student. I’m seeking a sponsorship, on behalf of my robot team consisting of 3 additional teammates, to assist toward competing in the 2008 RoboGames. RoboGames (combat event) is a 3 day worldwide robot competition where each team will design and build a robot that has weapon systems, armor, and mobile abilities, with the intention of defeating its opponents (other teams). By competing, the students on our team will receive high school credit, along with experience in engineering, building, and competition.

Should your company decide to sponsor our team, we will place your company logos on our robot and toolboxes, as well we will print your company logo on our T-shirts. We WILL also use other ways to make known that we were sponsored by your company. Our middleweight robot is going to cost around $8,000-$10,000 to build and any amount of money donated will be greatly appreciated.

Now he’s given me permission to post something about this, but I’ll only give out the team email address - teamdeltarobotics@gmail.com teamannihilare@gmail.com - where you can get in touch if you’d like to help out. You can get in touch yourself for a mail address.

I suppose if we could get enough tinbashing types to chip in then it wouldn’t cost a bundle. In fact, as I write this I’m becoming more inclined to drop a bit of hard-earned their way. I might even set them up a blog so we can help them online and keep track of their progress.

Anybody game? I’ll do it if you’ll do it………

Here’s an email I received asking for a bit of help and have been given permission to replicate it on here to see if anybody has any idea.

I have always been interested in metal sculpture and I am having a really tough time finding any education in this area. I would appreciate any advice you can give me on where to look and what classes to take. I am interested in all metals especially copper and fabduct metals (sheetmetal?) since my husband does heating & air, we have tons of scraps and I would love to make somethings out of it. I am also curious how to learn to paint metal to look antique or rusted. Where do I find out what to use to coat the metal before/after and how to treat it. Thank you for your expertise!
Jocelyn

You can contact Jocelyn directly at jocelyn3@gmail.com but I also think it’d be quite nice if anybody answered her questions in the comments in case anybody has has the same problem at some point in the future.

I think we might be talking somewhere round Minnesota, but me being me, I forgot to ask exactly where.