The Ultimate Buyer's Guide for Purchasing Metal Spinning Materials

Spinning is a low-tech method of forming axially symmetrical shapes from sheet metal. It’s popular because there’s minimal set-up: with a wood lathe, some basic tools, and practice, you can make your own spin-formed parts that look like, and are as good as, factory-made.

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I had never done any spinning, so I watched a good hour or so of videos on YouTube to get a sense of the tools and techniques involved before my first attempt. It took a couple of tries before initial success, and I revisited the videos frequently in order to solve issues with centering, trimming, and getting wavy edges (caused from uneven stretching of the sheet around the perimeter). I was encouraged with good results on only my third try, and subsequently, my success rate has been about 75%.

The goal of this spinning endeavor was to make a custom backplate for a second-hand prop spinner I acquired. The spinner was too big, but salvageable for my Jabiru if I could trim it from 11 inches diameter to 9-1/2 inches, and buy, or make, a new backplate. With no apparent source of buying a suitable backplate, I contemplated a variety of options, from machining one from billet (too heavy) to laying up one in fiberglass (impossible to attain a consistent thickness). Spinning seemed like the perfect option because that appears to be how many factory backplates are formed.

Any malleable material, in sheet form, can be used for spinning. I tested a sampling of O-temper aluminum sheet available from Aircraft Spruce: (0.040-inch thick), (0.050-inch thick) and (0.040-, 0.063-, and 0.080-inch thick). They all seemed to work about the same, the only difference being thicker material requires more leverage. The lathe used was my 2-hp Jet wood lathe, but almost any type of lathe will work, provided you can mount a tool rest with a fulcrum. The tool rest fulcrum is a basic necessity for spinning. It provides the leverage to control the tools (a burnishing bar or roller) that push the workpiece over the form. My tool rest was shop-made from a tool post welded to a short length of steel bar, which I drilled with a row of four 1/4-inch holes to allow some adjustability (see photos above).

All spinning projects start with making a mandrel in the desired shape and diameter of the final part, minus the thickness of the sheet if it’s critical for mating with another part. One-off mandrels are usually made of wood because it’s easy to shape and low cost. Any hardwood of reasonable density will work. Softwoods should be avoided because they dent too easily. Mandrels should be turned with the wood grain running end to end, or what turners call end-grain orientation. End-grain turnings are more stable than side-grain turnings. Depending on the species, wood expands and contracts with changes in moisture 10 to 20 times more across the grain than longitudinally with the grain. This makes a side-grain mandrel unsuitable for most spinning projects. Sanding, changes in humidity, or internal stress in the wood can noticeably warp a side-grain form, whereas the same factors barely affect an end-grain form. In a pinch, side-grain mandrels are fine for small-diameter objects with relatively shallow dish. The 3-inch diameter firewall shields (shown in the top photo) are a good example. But for anything with a deep dish or large diameter, the mandrel needs to be as stable as possible. Gluing several blocks together is a good option for making larger, and even more stable, end-grain forms. I glued up several pieces of scrap to create the nine-inch diameter mandrel for the backplate project.

Once the mandrel is turned, it should be sanded smooth with 180-grit or higher, or at least until there are no visible ridges or tool marks. After sanding, I applied a coat of HUT Crystal Coat, a fast-drying shellac-based finish, to seal the wood. A finish helps keep fingerprints and other grime from contaminating the wood, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

Spinning requires firmly clamping the workpiece between centers (the mandrel and the tailstock). Most projects will require some sort of custom pressure plate in between the workpiece and rotating center. What this is depends on what you’re spinning. For the firewall shields, which have a pre-drilled center hole, I used a length of wood with a protruding dowel and a cup center. For the bowls, I used the cup center directly on the workpiece. For the backplate, I used a 3/4-inch plywood disk. Having a center hole to locate and index the workpiece to the mandrel prevents the workpiece from sliding off center, and allows you to relax a bit in the tailstock pressure. For parts without a center hole, you have to really crank the tailstock to make sure it won’t slip.

Finally, you need some basic tools to push, squeeze, and stretch the workpiece over the mandrel. These can be as simple as a stick or metal bar with a rounded and polished end. Roller tools are often used for spinning, especially for forming beads. It’s worth noting that I had just as much luck beading edges with direct pressure from a blunt stick on the 0.040 material as I did with a concave roller tool. Except for my trimming tool, which is a carbide-tipped woodturning tool, all my spinning tools were homemade.

by Tim McCreight

Book description
I've had and used McCreight's original "Complete Metalsmith" for years and wasn't sure I needed the new version. After owning it for several months now I couldn't be happier. The author assumes that the reader is as interested in WHY things happen as he is. This is not a step-by-step project book, but a bench tool. Do you need to know how to score metal to make a sharp corner? How can you tell when a piece of metal is annealed? Have you been bezel setting stones and are now ready to advance to a prong setting? Ready to make a hinge? Casting? Fusing? Repoussé? Need to know what the Precious Metal Clay craze is about and how to start? It's all in here and the information is presented in a format made for the beginner or the experienced jeweler. He even covers how to photograph your work. I love that McCreight shows several ways of doing things so that if you don't have the equipment or tools, you can still proceed. In his typical style, the author has thought of everything. He's even made a smaller and less expensive version of the book for the "starving artists" and students among us

Spiral-bound: 208 pages.
Publisher: Davis; Revised edition (December 31, )
Language:

by Tim McCreight

Book description
I've had and used McCreight's original "Complete Metalsmith" for years and wasn't sure I needed the new version. After owning it for several months now I couldn't be happier. The author assumes that the reader is as interested in WHY things happen as he is. This is not a step-by-step project book, but a bench tool. Do you need to know how to score metal to make a sharp corner? How can you tell when a piece of metal is annealed? Have you been bezel setting stones and are now ready to advance to a prong setting? Ready to make a hinge? Casting? Fusing? Repoussé? Need to know what the Precious Metal Clay craze is about and how to start? It's all in here and the information is presented in a format made for the beginner or the experienced jeweler. He even covers how to photograph your work. I love that McCreight shows several ways of doing things so that if you don't have the equipment or tools, you can still proceed. In his typical style, the author has thought of everything. He's even made a smaller and less expensive version of the book for the "starving artists" and students among us

Spiral-bound, Hard: 208 pages.
Publisher:
Language: English

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by Darle W. Dudley

Book description
For more than 30 years the book Practical Gear Design, later re-titled Handbook of Practical Gear Design, has been the leading engineering guide and reference on the subject. It is now available again in its most recent edition. The book is a detailed, practical guide and reference to gear technology. The design of all types of gears is covered, from those for small mechanisms to large industrial applications. The presentation is designed for easy reference for those involved in practical gear design, manufacture, applications and problem solving. The text is well illustrated with clear diagrams and photographs. The many tables provide needed reference data in convenient form.

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by Richard Seraphinoff, Raymond Parks, and Robert Barclay

Book description
This book illustrates each stage in the manufacture of a natural trumpet, starting from flat brass sheet and following as closely as possible the methods, materials and tools of 17th and 18th century craftsmen; the metalworkers of Nürnberg, who worked with a basic technology that relied for its speed and efficiency on hand skill. Using their simple tools and techniques anybody can make a trumpet very much as they did. The text is profusely illustrated with colour photographs taken at one of the trumpet-making workshops which have been successfully run by Bob Barclay and Rick Seraphinoff over several years. Participants have included players, makers and repairers of modern instruments, historians and collectors. All have left with a real appreciation of the craft of the baroque trumpet maker, and have produced their own playable instrument, a copy of a trumpet made by Hanns Hainlein in Nürnberg in . The descriptions cover the processes by which tubes are seamed and joined, bells are hammered to shape and then burnished on a mandrel, bows are filled with molten metal and bent, and decorations are engraved and punched.

Unknown Binding: 29 pages.
Publisher: Edinburgh University
Language:

by Paul G. Wiley

Book description
Written by a professional metal spinning artisan with twenty five years' experience in the art, design and automobile aftermarket fields. This is the perfect workshop companion for anyone interested in learning this 3,000 year old craft. Topics include safety issues, tools and equipment setups, chuckmaking and metals for spinning. Projects include bowl shapes in three different heights, spheres, bezels, trumpeted shapes and straight-sided work. An entire chapter is devoted to making a three piece copper top section of a large post lantern, which illustrates some advanced techniques of spinning. With it's high-tech binding and over 150 clear b&w photos printed on heavy stock, this is one rugged book.

Spiral-bound: pages.
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by Dona Z. Meilach, Daryl Meier (Introduction), Stephen Bondi (Contributor)

Book description
This important new book tackles the burgeoning revival of the blacksmith's art. Author Dona Meilach has brought together over 500 works by nearly 200 artist-craftsmen from sixteen countries to illustrate the unprecedented activity in modern ironwork that has led to its blossoming into a serious art form. You'll learn several techniques using hot and cold forming with the results clearly shown. You'll be able to recognize how a fence, railing, grille, table, chair, knife, and other items evolve, and better appreciate their design and workmanship. Each chapter provides background for the type of objects shown-- architectural ironwork, sculpture, furniture, containers and vessels, lighting fixtures and candleholders, fireplace accessories, wind vanes, household and liturgical items, and the incredible knives made of Damascus steel. You'll find ample information for how and where to begin your own study in this extensive resource list of organizations, Internet sources, publications, museums, and educational opportunities. The Contemporary Blacksmith** undoubtedly should be found in the libraries of every metalworker, art educator, architect, interior designer, ironwares collector, and crafts person.

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by James Lukin (Editor)

Book description
Frank Knox referred to James Lukin (-) as one of the outstanding ornamental turners of the modern period, and considered his books second only to those of Holtzapffel in usefulness, clarifying much of what Holtzapffel left unclear. This reprint contains both the expanded edition of Turning Lathes and the 200 page Britannia Company Catalog that lists and illustrates all types of lathes and lathe equipment, as well as other quality machine tools. Lukin, in the over 200 page narrative section, covers turning tools, hardwood turning, metal turning with hand tools, slide test work in metal, the self-acting lathe, chuck-making, turning square sections, screw cutting, metal spinning, a description of BeddowUs (combined) epicycloidal, rose cutting, eccentric cutting, drilling, fluting and vertical cutting, the eccentric chuck, the dome or spherical chuck, the goniostat, the oval or ellipse chuck, and much other fascinating information. Fully illustrated.

Paperback: 432 pages.
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by Donald De Carle

Book description
Illustrated This book is divided in two parts. The first half of the book covers the overall concepts and use of watchmaker's lathes. The second half reviews all the models that might be typically found. Not entirely encompassing list... but pretty close. If you are considering buying a watchmaker's lathe... this is a MUST HAVE book. Also, this is highly recommended for any one who likes lathes in general. It's obvious the author really cares about his subject. It is enjoyable to read. The diagrams are excellent.

Hardcover: 240 pages.
Publisher: Robert Hale Limited; 5 edition (March 1, )
Language: English

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