I'v had a storm of enquires as to how I neatly swaged the holes in the Terrapin bulkheads.
The solution is to make a press type tool (no press required) and use a 4 lb lump hammer to gently (seriously - no need to beat the panel to death) tap the former until the hole has a perfect swage.

You could make the formers out of steel, brass etc. but having a passion for wood turning in a previous life I made mine out of lignum vitae
http://www.lignum-vitae.com/

I have made dozens of swages with no problems- indeed one tool is off on loan to a builder in Scotland shortly.

[Edited on 19/3/04 by Terrapin_racing]
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The holes on the panels shown swaged on the rear anf front skinned bulkheads of my Terrapin MK1
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Do the opposing swages meet each other?...and if so are they welded/brazed together?

Bloody hell, thats a neat job, I think the builder in Scotlands got hard job to match that beastie, hope yer looking at this Blake
Shug.

yes I have seen it and I will see how mine turn out but I have some douts as to wether thay will be as good as that.

blake

also that wood is very cool I had no idear that ther was any wood with oughs propertys.

Lignum vitae is very scarce these days and consequntly expensive. One source are old grass bowls sometimes seem at boot sales.
I have used tufnol in the past to good effect and much more readily available.

Mick

Hi

I assume that is grows in the tropics and like a lot of hard woods is not farmed from a replenished crop. Does any one have a web sight with some more details?

www.stjohnbeachguide.com/Lignum%20Vitae.htm

To answer a few questions -
the swages do not meet in the middle of the panels on the rear (as internal tubing is 3/4 square) so gap is about 3/8 to 1/2 inch.
On the front bulkhead which uses inner of 1/2 " OD tube the swages just about touch in a few areas but in all cases they are not brazed or welded together at any points of contact - as per Lotus really.

Also get my LV from sustainable source (it's not cheap) last piece I bought which is 8inches diameter by about a foot high cost £30 - used about £7.50's worht to make the large former in photo.
The smell when turning this stuff is fantastic!
cheers
Rob

[Edited on 19/3/04 by Terrapin_racing]

I like silicon too :-)
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Beautiful work. I recently started designing my chassis and have been reviewing books that I bought 30 years ago when I was in school. The Lotus 7 was pretty state of the art then. The book I have has drawings of a Lotus F1 car from the space frame days with bulkheads like yours at each end.

Yes and still used in some areas today. In a lot of cases where these have been dispensed with in favour of straight forward box section tubing the end weight has bee higher.
They look good too!