You are the shop teacher that every high school kid needs in this world. All of us dreamers who never had the right teachers to help us bring out the talent in our hands needed a guy like you. Thanks for all your time and effort in these videos!
Your ability to explain things, is phenomenal. You are a great teacher and you take time to explain the reasons why you do what you are doing. Don’t leave RUclips as I love learning from you!
I remember going to work at a new body shop in high school and the first thing they gave me was an '89 chevy pickup door to body work, the first strike with my body hammer the new boss yelled WTF have you been working on. I told him I was working on restoring a '54 chevy 3100 pickup at the other shop I was working at. He replied that makes sense now work that hammer mark out! Great times starting to work with the pop can metal of newer vehicles...
Karl, love your videos. I' m 63 and have been making my own patch panels for longer than you've been around, but I always pick up a couple of tips from you. Here's one for you. For grinding in those tight places get yourself a half by 18" belt sander. They make cubitron belts for them too. I use mine all the time.
Constructive criticism? You rock! These tutorials you do are by far the best I've found, and have by far been the biggest influence on my welding and metal work. More please!
What you're doing is demonstrating you learning each and every moment of the process which is so easy to digest as a pupil. Thank you, you are truly gifted.
I am forever grateful for all of the education you have given all of us. You and Fitzee are the reason I thought I could even try to do the things I've acomplished. Thank you Karl!
Best description of heat expansion and shrinking I’ve heard. I guess that’s why metal “tucks”sometimes. Hot metal must push the cold metal and it has to go somewhere
Great job as usual Karl and you explain everything very well. You sold me on the 3-M Cubitron discs. I ran into a 3-M rep at Sema and he told me how the discs work. As you sand with the discs , pieces of the grit break off and form a new sharp edge which makes them one of the best discs out there.
I'd still call this fine tuning...fine art....perfection is a pipe dream. Your metal knowledge and skill amazes me Karl. IT's like watching a fine oil painter, from crude to the fine tuning of the master piece.
That's a really great explanation of the expansion/shrinking of hot sheetmetal. That is what a lot of us back-yarders need. I always look forward to more of your tips and tricks. Cheers.
You do a great job buddy, what you are doing reminds me of a time my late father was restoring a MK1 Corrina estate( yes I am in UK) he tore it down to a shell then had it acid dipped when it came back it had quite allot of corrosion but not enough to scrap it. My dad's best mate was a blacksmith and he had a forge in Nottingham my dad took the shell to him so he could weld it for him I spent most weekends in shed helping while he sorted it what amazed me was he hand fabricated everything including wheel arches front and lower wing panels floor etc he has welded everything and he hammer and dollied every weld smooth where needed he also cut Very thin strips of mild steel and used them as filler rod,I asked him why he simply put its allot softer to work with on body panels than the rod he was an amazing welder fabricator I still have the car non of the repairs have come through it was done 35 years ago,now I can't say the same of the bits he didn't need to do lol..
hi thanks for time to make these vids going to fabricate a cab for a Cj7 as no sun over the pond here in the uk so your work is so inspiring not sure i will have your patients but you vids are on a loop in the workshop keeps me motivated so thanks again Sam
great video as this is something most of us junior metal workers struggle with. But for those hard to reach spots where you are trying to grind the weld back, a finger file/band sander works well.
I love you're work. You explain and do stuff like old school. Awesome. Sadly Oxy / Acet welding has lost it's popularity to high speed efficiency and cost minimisation. With Oxy/Acet the metal was dressed during the weld. The metal was annealed and manipulated as you went. There was very minimal grinding. ( actually there were no tiny grinders available, not even a 4" one) My dad was a perfectionist. Started as an apprentice panel beater, Joined the airforce during the war and became an airframe fitter ( a panelbeater in aluminium ) then after the war his shortened apprenticship wasn't recognized so he had to do it all over. The man was a true cratfsman. When I was 15 he taught me how to oxy weld aluminium. I loved watching his work. I'm pretty deaf because I was the little kid that could fit in the boot or guard to hold the dolley where he couldn't reach. So I'm sold on Oxy/Acet. I really cringe at the mig "tack-weld" process. The amount of work to flatten all those hard tacks is ridiculous. My rant over. Keep up your good stuff.
Man, the things you are able to create are from a flat sheet of metal is mind blowing. You guys killed it in this video just like all the others you've created.
I really enjoyed the video and I'm happy to see body work being done the old way by a younger feller. Most folks nowdays just slap big gobs of filler on and sand that to shape. You're very talented and I'm glad you use that talent. Just this 1 video alone, you showed me a couple different tricks I never thought about using.
Karl - not only do you have an unteachable knack for explaining very difficult processes, your mad skills don't get in the way. Your manner is so gentle and helpful. Teaching others trying to learn TIG and MIG welding sheet metal, when you have so much experience yourself, can be very difficult. Few can do it. My buddy is a master fabricator running a fab shop in Ohio for 40 years. I asked him to help me learn TIG welding. He was excited to help. It was a disaster. His ability is unquestionable, but he wasn't able to explain things in a way I could understand. I'm not a terrible welder & good listener. But he became as frustrated with me as I was by him. Your processes in finish welding sheet metal isn't beginner stuff, but semi newbies can learn amazing things by closely listening to your experience. No, they won't be able to match your work (just yet) & you know that, but what a great head start you give all pf us at many skill levels. You don't eliminate practice practice practice, but you jump start it. Thank you so much Karl.
"This is not perfect, perfect", perhaps not, but it's a joy to watch it come up to standard. I'm really enjoying your take on finishing, that grill is really looking great. Can't wait to see it worked into the body finished. Thanks!
Hi from MB Karl. I started watching your channel when Brent was helping you w/the cab-over. Cant wait to see that truck on the road! I'm subscribed and liked and plan on following. Keep it up young man - great job!
My uncle ran an old resto shop in Atlanta and I worked there to pay my way thru college. Your videos have allowed me to continue learning, a decade and a half later, the things he wasn't able to pass down. Thank you.
I bought the cubitrons, you are correct. They are way better than anything else i have used so far. I dont think mig is as malleable.guess i better get back to learning tig. I do like the 3/8” belt sander for getting into tight spots. The bullseye pick. Buddy has one. I want to see how it works and build my own Two weeks and i get to see your beautiful side of the country!
Thank you for the detailed explanation of shrinking now I fully understand what is going on. It has been on my mind for awhile and this explanation cleared it up for me. Cheers
I totally agree with you on knowing when to stop and why. You in my opinion do some of the best metal work going on right now. I metal work with fixtures in my vice and with curved spoons that I can slap and hammer against. I dig all your equipment and how excellent your work is. I don’t have all that stuff and you are amazing. There are so many channels with rough cars and guys doing rough metal work on them, happy with rust holes, dents all over and bondo slapped on thick, sanded down, then a garage paint job that is so bad they have to patina or distress it to blend in with the roughness of the whole car. They like their cars that way and I don’t fault them for making it how they like their cars. That is the way it should be, their car, their decisions. It is just great to see a guy like you that does fine work. I hung around master metal workers and I learned a lot, there is always a smear of bondo around here and there unless it is something going for a Riddler award or a customer wants no bondo. In my opinion it is not worth it for time and expense. You hit it right on the head with your opinion and I totally agree. When I was young you had to be fast or you were fired. Producing better quality metal work at super human speed with less and less bondo only happened through experience, learning from others, self learning and understanding how metal moves along with staying employed long enough to ever be great at it to go off and do your own thing. Way to go, way to do fine work, the quality shows.
Great job on the grill and the best explanation of not only how to do the repairs but, also what the metal is doing and how it reacts to what you are doing with it, heat or however you work it hammering or grinding it. Once you understand that you can make better decisions about your way to do the repair. Thanks again for the great video. Later
I'm enjoying tour channel. Learning a lot because you do a good job of explaining why you are doing what you do. It lets me transfer that reasoning to my own project. I'm fixing up my Grandpa's 56 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan. It is a special car, not because it was the only new car he bought, but that he used to take me out driving in it when I was a kid.
Good day sir I found you through ur visit at halfass kustoms I have 2 old cars that one I hacked my way through just it to get ready to pass government Inspection and the other is a family car that was bought new by my grandfather that I have to do some body work on and want it to look as best as possible but I have to work outside at a friend's place on a gravel driveway being a backyard guy body work was not my thing but with watching your videos I hope I can learn
I love those purple Cubitron discs but unfortunatly they now seem to be unavailable in Germany. There are some brown 3m discs available but they don't last as long as the purple ones😢 The sound is much better with the new mic - a great update to your channel!
Great detailing of process. For the low spots that cannot be hammered effectively, you can use modified vicegrips that "tuck" the low spot. Even making them high spots to the outside will allow for hammer and dollying them back to flat.
Thanks for a great video and a great explanation of what you're doing! I have indeed watched a number of videos of masterful people doing great metal finishing, but on time lapse and without explanation of why they're hitting or sanding where they are, I'm still in the dark. :-)
Great video and great explanation of the shrinking issue. I think I can further explain it. As you weld and heat the sheet metal, it experiences a localized softening and expansion. Since it is surrounded by cold and hard material, the expansion cannot happen in a lateral direction. The material can do one of two things. It can buckle and rise above the surrounding planar surfaces. Or it can increase in thickness. It’s probably a combination of the two. So when you come back and locally heat the distorted sheet metal that is a high spot, planishing those high spots is actually the process of upsetting the raised spot back into itself. That high spot after planishing will actually grow in thickness compared to the sheet metal that surrounds it. The material fluidly moves from one place to another. The added microphone is a great improvement to the audio! Keep up the great work! Love your videos!
Hi Karl and Fitzee, I thoroughly appreciate how you weld, smooth, and tweak your projects! You are a true metal artist and a delight to see how in tune you are with your craft. Speaking of tunes, your background tracks are very impressive. And you have a great assistant nearby! Its a pleasure to view your work. Wishing you the very best in your professional and personal life.👏👏👏
Put the 3” disk on the 2” arbor, grab a scrap piece of sheet metal with a point. Run the grinder and use the scrap metal point on the back of the disk like cutting on lathe. Cuts thru like butter and then u have a clean edge perfect circle and it’s balanced. 👍🏽.
Great explanation on the cause of heat shrinks from welds, Karl. It also explains why preheat prevents cracks in materials like cast iron and alloy steels. Use of heat-melt crayons ensures that the base material has even heating over an area beyond the weld to avoid the strain locked into material from the molten weld expanding against base material. Alloy tube can make a really strong 4-link and preheating to weld end connections can help ensure no micro cracks exist that can propagate later. There is also a condition called hydrogen embrittlement that can cause micro cracks when welding alloy stainless steel where post weld cool-down is critical (think post-flow on tig but for a metallurgical reason). Pre and post heating are things worth researching for those who are fabricating high-stress structures with alloys that might be used in 4-links, custom suspension control arms and the like.
Wow so happy I found you at Halfass Kustoms. Never seen anyone explaining so clearly how it all works. You took me to school. I will be watching much more! Thanks for the great content.
Love the videos. I would love to do a little bit of what you do. Hired a cool guy who used to build race cars (now fixes heavy machinary) who suggested to start learning welding use stick first and practice with two tacked angle iron pieces into an X to do 1) flat (in the valley), 2) horizantal (side valley), 3) vertical (standing it up on one "x" end) and finally 4) upside down. Hope you can picturre that. You able to take a couple minutes in each video to teach a really basic technique for those of us just starting out? I'll let you know if this old dog can learn a new trick.
Another awesome video,fantastic work on that grille shell,looks factory.I'm now going to get some rolock stuff in my ebay basket in preparation for my 1954 ford popular project. Keep safe guys and keep laughing😎😎
Most of my metal working has been stainless counter tops and the like. One thing that I used alot for hammering tight corners was round rod and square stock. Just shape the end to what you need and use it like a chisel.
You are amazing and very talented. Just a observation. It looks like the top right inside of the grill arch looks a little flatter than the left side. It might be optical illusion. I hesitate to even say anything because it looks so amazing. You rock 👍👍👍
Karl, Thanks for your patient step by step explanations. One small point that could be helpful in terms of understanding metal shrinking during welding. Hot metal not only expands, it also loses strength while very hot. This means that the thermal expansion, if restrained by cold metal around the hot stuff, will cause plastic deformation of the hot material - because it can't move outward. When it cools it regains its strength and pulls everything around it inwards. Which, of course, causes shrinking. Cheers from Scotland.
Hey Karl, I am really enjoying your content. I am not a fan of bodywork, but I realize I will need to learn for my current Mustang project. Thanks for educating all of us!
I haven't been keeping up with your videos recently but the quality is much improved. Your craftsmanship and knowledge is truly top notch. I've always been confused about the shrinking after welding and now I understand. Unfortunately there's only so much the brain can learn so I will still be fumbling around when I try to fix my welded sheet metal. 😂
You are the shop teacher that every high school kid needs in this world. All of us dreamers who never had the right teachers to help us bring out the talent in our hands needed a guy like you. Thanks for all your time and effort in these videos!
Your ability to explain things, is phenomenal. You are a great teacher and you take time to explain the reasons why you do what you are doing. Don’t leave RUclips as I love learning from you!
It makes me happy to see young people like you that have become masters at metal work and then sharing it with the world.
I remember going to work at a new body shop in high school and the first thing they gave me was an '89 chevy pickup door to body work, the first strike with my body hammer the new boss yelled WTF have you been working on. I told him I was working on restoring a '54 chevy 3100 pickup at the other shop I was working at. He replied that makes sense now work that hammer mark out! Great times starting to work with the pop can metal of newer vehicles...
Karl, love your videos. I' m 63 and have been making my own patch panels for longer than you've been around, but I always pick up a couple of tips from you. Here's one for you. For grinding in those tight places get yourself a half by 18" belt sander. They make cubitron belts for them too. I use mine all the time.
Good looking grill work and I learn a lot about metal work.
Just another comment to tell you how great your content is. Dont retire any time soon!
Nothing wrong with CHEAP, it's my second most favorite 5 letter word! Thanks for your videos!!!
Constructive criticism? You rock! These tutorials you do are by far the best I've found, and have by far been the biggest influence on my welding and metal work. More please!
What you're doing is demonstrating you learning each and every moment of the process which is so easy to digest as a pupil. Thank you, you are truly gifted.
I am forever grateful for all of the education you have given all of us. You and Fitzee are the reason I thought I could even try to do the things I've acomplished. Thank you Karl!
U are a gifted teacher. Thanks
Karl, thanks for bringing us along while you're working. You do a great job of letting us inside your head.
This is an excellent video. Gave this old guy new ways of thinking about it.
The main thing I've gathered here is the fact I have a lot to learn and this is my "go to" pace to learn it. Thanks Bro!
If anybody from 3m ever watched your videos I bet you’d have a sponsorship! You always give them very nice shout outs 👍
Best explanation I've ever heard on why metal shrinks after welding!
Love watching. Thanks for the clock, that actually took about 3 hours and 55 minutes almost 4 hours. The magic of editing.
Your Friend Jordan gave a great tip with the roloc disk and cut them into a square and tip the ends up a bit for blending curves and radius.
Learnt more in 52 minutes than in 50 years of playing with cars. Thank you so much, you are a great teacher.
Suggestion: You need more shop lights on the ceiling to light up your shop. Love your work!! Keep up the good work.
Best description of heat expansion and shrinking I’ve heard. I guess that’s why metal “tucks”sometimes. Hot metal must push the cold metal and it has to go somewhere
Great job as usual Karl and you explain everything very well. You sold me on the 3-M Cubitron discs. I ran into a 3-M rep at Sema and he told me how the discs work. As you sand with the discs , pieces of the grit break off and form a new sharp edge which makes them one of the best discs out there.
Lmao. Almost dropped the dreaded fbomb. Man I love you’re videos. You sir are a true artist!!
I'd still call this fine tuning...fine art....perfection is a pipe dream. Your metal knowledge and skill amazes me Karl. IT's like watching a fine oil painter, from crude to the fine tuning of the master piece.
Mate ,how good helping Halfass out ,, you're a good man ,, all the best from down here in Australia..............
THANK YOU Sir! You are truly PICASO with a hammer and dolly! Watching GREATNESS.
That's a really great explanation of the expansion/shrinking of hot sheetmetal. That is what
a lot of us back-yarders need. I always look forward to more of your tips and tricks. Cheers.
You do a great job buddy, what you are doing reminds me of a time my late father was restoring a MK1 Corrina estate( yes I am in UK) he tore it down to a shell then had it acid dipped when it came back it had quite allot of corrosion but not enough to scrap it. My dad's best mate was a blacksmith and he had a forge in Nottingham my dad took the shell to him so he could weld it for him I spent most weekends in shed helping while he sorted it what amazed me was he hand fabricated everything including wheel arches front and lower wing panels floor etc he has welded everything and he hammer and dollied every weld smooth where needed he also cut Very thin strips of mild steel and used them as filler rod,I asked him why he simply put its allot softer to work with on body panels than the rod he was an amazing welder fabricator I still have the car non of the repairs have come through it was done 35 years ago,now I can't say the same of
the bits he didn't need to do lol..
hi thanks for time to make these vids going to fabricate a cab for a Cj7 as no sun over the pond here in the uk so your work is so inspiring not sure i will have your patients but you vids are on a loop in the workshop keeps me motivated so thanks again Sam
6:14 That was a close one lol
Got a recommendation for ya, keep being a stand up, down to Earth dude. We love ya man
great video as this is something most of us junior metal workers struggle with. But for those hard to reach spots where you are trying to grind the weld back, a finger file/band sander works well.
Fantastic! Faaantaastic!! I think a term you're looking for is "overwork". Knowing where to stop is soo important. Thank You, Karl.
Wawooooo that's ace Carl great lesson
I can’t write anything new or groundbraking, but I love watching you work and learn a lot!
So if the straight-edge on the seam is-a-rockin' hammer and dolly gets a-knockin'! Great video Karl
You are an excellent teacher and I enjoy learning from you! (from a 25 yr. K-12 educator :))
I love you're work. You explain and do stuff like old school. Awesome. Sadly Oxy / Acet welding has lost it's popularity to high speed efficiency and cost minimisation. With Oxy/Acet the metal was dressed during the weld. The metal was annealed and manipulated as you went. There was very minimal grinding. ( actually there were no tiny grinders available, not even a 4" one) My dad was a perfectionist. Started as an apprentice panel beater, Joined the airforce during the war and became an airframe fitter ( a panelbeater in aluminium ) then after the war his shortened apprenticship wasn't recognized so he had to do it all over. The man was a true cratfsman. When I was 15 he taught me how to oxy weld aluminium. I loved watching his work. I'm pretty deaf because I was the little kid that could fit in the boot or guard to hold the dolley where he couldn't reach. So I'm sold on Oxy/Acet. I really cringe at the mig "tack-weld" process. The amount of work to flatten all those hard tacks is ridiculous. My rant over. Keep up your good stuff.
Man, the things you are able to create are from a flat sheet of metal is mind blowing. You guys killed it in this video just like all the others you've created.
Some good stuff right there
Nice work, great to hear you don’t villainies bondo, it is better than filing to paper thin to get small imperfections out.
Awesome as Always... Thank YOU for your content.Pleasure to watch and Learn.
Need a mini belt sander for inside of that grill. Awesome tool to have for body work
I really enjoyed the video and I'm happy to see body work being done the old way by a younger feller. Most folks nowdays just slap big gobs of filler on and sand that to shape. You're very talented and I'm glad you use that talent. Just this 1 video alone, you showed me a couple different tricks I never thought about using.
Thank You Karl for sharing your skills with us.👍👍❤
Great explanation on heat shrinking. Makes total sense!!!
Karl - not only do you have an unteachable knack for explaining very difficult processes, your mad skills don't get in the way. Your manner is so gentle and helpful. Teaching others trying to learn TIG and MIG welding sheet metal, when you have so much experience yourself, can be very difficult. Few can do it. My buddy is a master fabricator running a fab shop in Ohio for 40 years. I asked him to help me learn TIG welding. He was excited to help. It was a disaster. His ability is unquestionable, but he wasn't able to explain things in a way I could understand. I'm not a terrible welder & good listener. But he became as frustrated with me as I was by him. Your processes in finish welding sheet metal isn't beginner stuff, but semi newbies can learn amazing things by closely listening to your experience. No, they won't be able to match your work (just yet) & you know that, but what a great head start you give all pf us at many skill levels. You don't eliminate practice practice practice, but you jump start it. Thank you so much Karl.
Keep it all coming!!! Can't get enough! Thank you!!
Karl(?), you are the man. Some of the best instruction on the planet.
"This is not perfect, perfect", perhaps not, but it's a joy to watch it come up to standard. I'm really enjoying your take on finishing, that grill is really looking great. Can't wait to see it worked into the body finished. Thanks!
You are a true craftsman! Just found your channel, and I'm blown away!
Nice job Gents
You`re a true craftsman!
I just learned so much from you from just this one video. Thank you.
Hi from MB Karl. I started watching your channel when Brent was helping you w/the cab-over. Cant wait to see that truck on the road! I'm subscribed and liked and plan on following. Keep it up young man - great job!
tig seems very malleable, would like to see a similar video with the mig , thanks for the great education you are giving us home guys.
My uncle ran an old resto shop in Atlanta and I worked there to pay my way thru college. Your videos have allowed me to continue learning, a decade and a half later, the things he wasn't able to pass down. Thank you.
Appreciate all the information. Wasn't looking for it, but exactly what I needed!
Enjoyed that, thanks!
You still have mad skills. Very educational video. Cheers
I bought the cubitrons, you are correct. They are way better than anything else i have used so far. I dont think mig is as malleable.guess i better get back to learning tig. I do like the 3/8” belt sander for getting into tight spots.
The bullseye pick. Buddy has one. I want to see how it works and build my own
Two weeks and i get to see your beautiful side of the country!
Thank you for the detailed explanation of shrinking now I fully understand what is going on. It has been on my mind for awhile and this explanation cleared it up for me. Cheers
I totally agree with you on knowing when to stop and why. You in my opinion do some of the best metal work going on right now. I metal work with fixtures in my vice and with curved spoons that I can slap and hammer against. I dig all your equipment and how excellent your work is. I don’t have all that stuff and you are amazing. There are so many channels with rough cars and guys doing rough metal work on them, happy with rust holes, dents all over and bondo slapped on thick, sanded down, then a garage paint job that is so bad they have to patina or distress it to blend in with the roughness of the whole car. They like their cars that way and I don’t fault them for making it how they like their cars. That is the way it should be, their car, their decisions. It is just great to see a guy like you that does fine work. I hung around master metal workers and I learned a lot, there is always a smear of bondo around here and there unless it is something going for a Riddler award or a customer wants no bondo. In my opinion it is not worth it for time and expense. You hit it right on the head with your opinion and I totally agree. When I was young you had to be fast or you were fired. Producing better quality metal work at super human speed with less and less bondo only happened through experience, learning from others, self learning and understanding how metal moves along with staying employed long enough to ever be great at it to go off and do your own thing. Way to go, way to do fine work, the quality shows.
Great work. I love the tips. Between you and fitzee I've learned so much.
Another great video full of information. For us rookie metal workers can you explain how much force to use when planishing the metal.
Such a great job swinging the camera, Elio! These videos rock.
Great job on the grill and the best explanation of not only how to do the repairs but, also what the metal is doing and how it reacts to what you are doing with it, heat or however you work it hammering or grinding it. Once you understand that you can make better decisions about your way to do the repair. Thanks again for the great video. Later
I'm enjoying tour channel. Learning a lot because you do a good job of explaining why you are doing what you do. It lets me transfer that reasoning to my own project. I'm fixing up my Grandpa's 56 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan. It is a special car, not because it was the only new car he bought, but that he used to take me out driving in it when I was a kid.
Very good info...your attention to detail is unsurpassed....sweet
I have learned so much, I look forward to continuing to learn from you Karl! Thank you
As always a super clear instructive video. Thank you😀😀
Good day sir I found you through ur visit at halfass kustoms I have 2 old cars that one I hacked my way through just it to get ready to pass government Inspection and the other is a family car that was bought new by my grandfather that I have to do some body work on and want it to look as best as possible but I have to work outside at a friend's place on a gravel driveway being a backyard guy body work was not my thing but with watching your videos I hope I can learn
I love those purple Cubitron discs but unfortunatly they now seem to be unavailable in Germany. There are some brown 3m discs available but they don't last as long as the purple ones😢
The sound is much better with the new mic - a great update to your channel!
What a great result! You are too humble on your work!
Thank you!
Great detailing of process.
For the low spots that cannot be hammered effectively, you can use modified vicegrips that "tuck" the low spot. Even making them high spots to the outside will allow for hammer and dollying them back to flat.
Thanks for a great video and a great explanation of what you're doing! I have indeed watched a number of videos of masterful people doing great metal finishing, but on time lapse and without explanation of why they're hitting or sanding where they are, I'm still in the dark. :-)
Great video and great explanation of the shrinking issue. I think I can further explain it. As you weld and heat the sheet metal, it experiences a localized softening and expansion. Since it is surrounded by cold and hard material, the expansion cannot happen in a lateral direction. The material can do one of two things. It can buckle and rise above the surrounding planar surfaces. Or it can increase in thickness. It’s probably a combination of the two. So when you come back and locally heat the distorted sheet metal that is a high spot, planishing those high spots is actually the process of upsetting the raised spot back into itself. That high spot after planishing will actually grow in thickness compared to the sheet metal that surrounds it. The material fluidly moves from one place to another.
The added microphone is a great improvement to the audio!
Keep up the great work! Love your videos!
Hi Karl and Fitzee, I thoroughly appreciate how you weld, smooth, and tweak your projects! You are a true metal artist and a delight to see how in tune you are with your craft. Speaking of tunes, your background tracks are very impressive. And you have a great assistant nearby! Its a pleasure to view your work. Wishing you the very best in your professional and personal life.👏👏👏
You definitely do fill in the bits we have all been wondering about.
Thank you🇦🇺🤜🏼🤛🏼🍀😎
Put the 3” disk on the 2” arbor, grab a scrap piece of sheet metal with a point. Run the grinder and use the scrap metal point on the back of the disk like cutting on lathe. Cuts thru like butter and then u have a clean edge perfect circle and it’s balanced. 👍🏽.
Great explanation on the cause of heat shrinks from welds, Karl. It also explains why preheat prevents cracks in materials like cast iron and alloy steels. Use of heat-melt crayons ensures that the base material has even heating over an area beyond the weld to avoid the strain locked into material from the molten weld expanding against base material. Alloy tube can make a really strong 4-link and preheating to weld end connections can help ensure no micro cracks exist that can propagate later. There is also a condition called hydrogen embrittlement that can cause micro cracks when welding alloy stainless steel where post weld cool-down is critical (think post-flow on tig but for a metallurgical reason). Pre and post heating are things worth researching for those who are fabricating high-stress structures with alloys that might be used in 4-links, custom suspension control arms and the like.
Wow so happy I found you at Halfass Kustoms. Never seen anyone explaining so clearly how it all works. You took me to school. I will be watching much more! Thanks for the great content.
Cool info, I am about to try to take the dents out of my truck watching you make it look so easy, lol.
Great job explaining about the sound of the hammer and dolly when they are in contact. Your work is awsome.
Love the videos. I would love to do a little bit of what you do. Hired a cool guy who used to build race cars (now fixes heavy machinary) who suggested to start learning welding use stick first and practice with two tacked angle iron pieces into an X to do 1) flat (in the valley), 2) horizantal (side valley), 3) vertical (standing it up on one "x" end) and finally 4) upside down. Hope you can picturre that. You able to take a couple minutes in each video to teach a really basic technique for those of us just starting out? I'll let you know if this old dog can learn a new trick.
Watched this one twice, sooo helpful!!!
Another awesome video,fantastic work on that grille shell,looks factory.I'm now going to get some rolock stuff in my ebay basket in preparation for my 1954 ford popular project.
Keep safe guys and keep laughing😎😎
Incredible as usual
Most of my metal working has been stainless counter tops and the like. One thing that I used alot for hammering tight corners was round rod and square stock. Just shape the end to what you need and use it like a chisel.
You are amazing and very talented. Just a observation. It looks like the top right inside of the grill arch looks a little flatter than the left side. It might be optical illusion. I hesitate to even say anything because it looks so amazing. You rock 👍👍👍
Got the Mother tucker and gauge the other day Karl looking forward to putting them to work
Cheers
Frank
Karl, Thanks for your patient step by step explanations. One small point that could be helpful in terms of understanding metal shrinking during welding. Hot metal not only expands, it also loses strength while very hot. This means that the thermal expansion, if restrained by cold metal around the hot stuff, will cause plastic deformation of the hot material - because it can't move outward. When it cools it regains its strength and pulls everything around it inwards. Which, of course, causes shrinking. Cheers from Scotland.
Morning Karl! Great tip on cutting down the 3" disc's to 2"....never thought of that!
Hey Karl, I am really enjoying your content. I am not a fan of bodywork, but I realize I will need to learn for my current Mustang project. Thanks for educating all of us!
a very good video it helps me to understand how and why I am overgrinding my welds , I often grind through the base metal, so thank you
Cheers for another fantastic vid man and cheers for using a mic, big upgrade on an already awesome production.
I haven't been keeping up with your videos recently but the quality is much improved. Your craftsmanship and knowledge is truly top notch. I've always been confused about the shrinking after welding and now I understand. Unfortunately there's only so much the brain can learn so I will still be fumbling around when I try to fix my welded sheet metal. 😂
Thank you for such a brilliant channel. You are teaching the world . Keep it coming. !!
I understand how it’s done now. All I have to do is practice. Thanks.
Looks nice