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Handmade Square to Round Duct

JStar
JStar Member Posts: 2,752
edited July 2015 in THE MAIN WALL
I was just looking through some old pictures and thought I would show off a bit. Here's a handmade square-to-round duct fitting. Yeah, we're not just wetheads. Ok...we are wetheads, but we're good at other things, too.

Feel free to show off some duct-fab here. Not enough respect goes out to the really skilled tin-knockers.
ChrisJ

Comments

  • Tinman
    Tinman Member Posts: 2,808
    Back in the 80's I was card carrying member of Local 73 in Chicago. If you could dream it, I could make it. Today? I'd probably have to refer to Richard Budzik's 40 Fittings book.
    Steve Minnich
  • Rich_49
    Rich_49 Member Posts: 2,766
    AHHH , Tin Knocker ! LMAO
    You didn't get what you didn't pay for and it will never be what you thought it would .
    Langans Plumbing & Heating LLC
    732-751-1560
    Serving most of New Jersey, Eastern Pa .
    Consultation, Design & Installation anywhere
    Rich McGrath 732-581-3833
  • SWEI
    SWEI Member Posts: 7,356
    All I have to do is think about sheet metal and my fingers start to hurt.
  • unclejohn
    unclejohn Member Posts: 1,833
    Down here in Maryland there is a shop, Custom Sheet Metal. I used to go there and scratch out some drawings and the old man, Joe would make it. He had a ash tray piled about 5" tall with camels and his son would sit on the stool next to him and watched. Now the son makes up the metal from my chicken scratch drawings and the duct goes in like it grew there.
  • JStar
    JStar Member Posts: 2,752
    Ductwork is an extremely bi-polar trade. You either get the guys who sneak by with a small brake and a roll of tape, or the ones who are real artists. There are some jobs that you just can't take your eyes off when it's all done.
    Tinman
  • Tinman
    Tinman Member Posts: 2,808
    Geez, I've seen guys laying a piece of metal on someone's driveway, putting their tool box on it, kneeling on the tool box, and then bending it up with their hands. No brake. No nothing.

    Now THAT is something I could teach a monkey to do.
    Steve Minnich
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,042
    A "Henslers Bender" works so much better than the tool box.
    (For a small potatoes guy like myself)
    That is all I have used for a brake for 25 years. It makes pretty tight bends if you weigh enough, ( I certainly do). A 12" pipe wrench for a handle on the far side helps. It is great exercise.

    It is just 2 angle irons spot welded on the ends. Slip up to 36" tin thru it and bend. For a plenum/box I use a "S" cleat and hide it on the back side of furnace. Paid for itself on the first day. A 24" folding tool does the top.
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 22,024
    Nice work, Joe. It's good to be a well rounded mechanic. Are you SURE you want to part with those tools?

    I visited the NAIT tech school in Alberta back in 2007, along with ME.

    Here are some of the sheetmetal projects the girls and guys built over the years. Great to see that skill is still being passed along.
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream