How To Make Ribs In Sheet Metal With Hand Tools

Using little more than a sheet of 16 gauge steel and some hand tools we recreated the floor pans including the ribs where needed.

How to make ribs in sheet metal with hand tools.

Light planes such as the piper or interstate have the skeletal aluminum ribs while heavier aircraft like the bearhawk have ribs of formed sheet. A common way to add strength to a sheet metal part is to add strengthening ribs. As the material is deformed the effective material thickness increases strengthening the material. Two ways to add strengthening ribs are with mate s rollerball tool and a beaded emboss tool.

Material costs were cheap less than 50 and we picked up. Follow along as i demonstrate how you can begin shaping metal with hand tools only. Hand operated bead rollers like this one form beads and ribs into sheet metal. Eet s look at the process of forming ribs of aluminum sheet.

How can you go about shaping metal with hand tools alone.