English Wheel and Metal Shaping Course
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 8:55 pm
Having seen the excellent English Wheel produced by Justin Baker at the 2015 LAA Rally I was intrigued to learn more about the skills needed to work sheet metal into complex shapes to make various fairings on my aeroplane build. Last week I completed a one day training course with John Ricketts of Quiet Bear Metal Shaping (www. quietbearmetalshaping.com). Not only did John bring along an English Wheel, but also within his van he had two shrinker/ stretcher machines, much bigger than any I had seen previously, and an electrically driven Jenny Roller. It was a full day course with John turning up at my house around 8:30 and working through to 17:30 with only a short break for lunch. John is very hands on and got wheeling sheet steel whilst he set up the other machines. I learnt a tremendous amount during the day, and John was very willing to offer constructive advice on how to correct my (many) errors. It was an excellent course and I cannot recommend John enough.