I quite fancy an English wheel - I think it'd be useful but I'm also aware that it can be a very quick way of transforming useful steel into scrap. Does anyone have much / any experience getting to grips with them?

For those who are now thinking 'what?' they look like this and are used for shaping metal and in skilled hands, they can do wonderful things.

They look easy Stu. You take a big sheet of steel, an English wheel and an hour later you have an e type bonnet. What could possibly go wrong?

They look easy Stu

Yes, I think it might be the ease with which a skilled hand makes it appear which may be the problem

Never used one. But, I did used to have a mate who was a panel beater at a Rolls Royce approved restorer. He said the modern fabricated ones were rubbish (lack of stiffness) and not worth buying and the old cast iron type were the ones that worked properly.

Only mention it because the one in the photo is obviously a fabricated type. Although I suppose it would depend on the gauge you were working. It may be possible to stiffen it up with gussets/ribs if needed though.

There's lots of how to videos on YouTube . blokes with beard's so they must know the what their on about

slarge wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 10:44 am They look easy Stu. You take a big sheet of steel, an English wheel and an hour later you have an e type bonnet. What could possibly go wrong?

You own a Mini? (a proper one)

It's easy enough to get the basics, and simple shapes are pretty easy to achieve. But I'm no expert, I apprenticed as an aircraft sheet metal worker and was only just starting to understand how to do the complex stuff after 3 years of training and a year in the job. Then bae contracted all the sheet metal work to an outside company. Which left me adjusting all the badly made parts that came from them.
Unsurprisingly left soon after that.
When I was doing it there were guys with 15-20 years experience who still got cliff, the oldest guy with 40years experience, to put right their fuckups or finish stuff they couldn't get close enough.

These are proper: https://instagram.com/blacksheepcrossmember

I guess you’ve seen Dominic Chinea from the repair shop and YouTube… with his Ramalah English wheels?

I guess you’ve seen Dominic Chinea from the repair shop and YouTube… with his Ramalah English wheels?

No but I'll go and look, ta.

I watch an American show called full custom garage and the guy on it often uses one of these for making old body panels fit to his custom builds