All MetalShaping - Here I am!!!

Greetings all!!

My name is Mike, and while I live and work in Calgary, Alberta most of the week with my girlfriend, my 'creative engineer' side makes it's home in my wanna-be hot-rod shop in Magrath.

My current passion is my '37 Ford Pickup. I'm making pretty much everything from scratch. My MET and equipment design background made it pretty easy to design and build a laser-cut and welded frame, but doing all the sheet metal work has been a trial-and-error process at best. I have nowhere to go learn and even if I did, time is short. I enjoy working it out mostly on my own anyway. I lurk on forums to fill in some of the gaps. Hopefully as I learn I'll get to be a contributor.

So far I'm conquering floorpans that have been a combination of plain layout and edge flange skills, but the trans tunnel is requiring I really get hot and heavy with the shrinker, bead roller, and english wheel. I have entry-level stuff from Woodward Fab and Princess Auto (The Canadian Harbour Freight) which is actually working fairly well. I'm working hard to get my skills to surpass the capability of the tools.

I also have recently acquired a Neon plant...all the stuff required to make neon signs! This will also lean on my metal skills to make creative and well-finished metal bases. (Oh to have an Erco flanger......sigh....)

Anyway, that's me in a nutshell.

Thanks for listening!

Mike