How to Do Sheet-Metal Drafting
Sheet-metal drafting, or pattern drawing, entails creation of artistic diagrams or patterns on the surface of metals before cutting, or converting, the sheet metal into appropriate objects, including metal boxes, roof gutters or cake pans. Choose the design or pattern you wish to draw before transferring it to the metal. Afterward, you may etch out your design on your metal material or cut it out.
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Things You'll Need
- Brown detail paper
- Wax
- Grease pen or felt permanent marker
- Shears or snips
- Rubber cement
- Bench pin
- Power drill
- Drawing board
- Pliers
- Knife
- Jeweler’s saw
Instructions
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1
Search through metal craftwork magazines, websites or books to choose the design or pattern you would like to create. Select your design.
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2
Sketch out your design on your notebook. Once you have the sketch ready, you can draw your design on your brown detail paper, which will serve as your transfer paper.
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3
Attach the brown detail paper to the drawing board. Place the long edge of your brown detail paper at parallel with the long edge of your drawing board. Check that it is three inches within the lower and the left-hand edge of your board. Fix a thumbtack in the upper right-hand corner. Press it in until it is completely flush with your paper’s surface.
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4
Place your left hand at the upper right-hand corner of your brown paper and slide it slowly towards the lower left-hand corner. This will evenly spread out the paper. Insert another thumbtack. Lay your left hand on the middle of the sheet. Slide your hand toward the upper left-hand corner. Insert the third tack. Place you hand at the center, slide it toward the lower right-hand corner, and press in your third tack. This will ensure your paper has no wrinkles that could interfere with the patterns you are about to create.
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Draw your design on your brown detail paper.
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Remove your brown detail paper with the drawing from the drawing board. Spread some rubber cement to the back of your drawing as evenly as possible. Spread a layer of rubber cement to the section of your sheet metal. Ensure that the rubber cement is applied as evenly as possible. Allow the cement to dry on both your drawing and sheet metal.
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Attach your drawing to your sheet metal. Press them together to transfer your design to the sheet metal. You may have to make the drawing of your design transferred to a paper holder by drawing the outline with a grease pen or a thick marker.
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Put on your rubber gloves to protect your hand from being cut by the sheet metal. Lay the sheet metal on to the workbench.
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Etch out your designs on the surface of the sheet metal using the transferred outline as your guideline. You may have to use engraving and etching tool, or a knife. This will create designs, or patterns onto the sheet metal.
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Cut out the shape of your design using straight sheet-metal shears. Use right-angle shears to cut right cut, and left cuts using left-angle shears. Keep switching shears whenever you need to change direction of cut to cut out your design shapes. You may have to bend your sheet metal with pliers, depending on its thickness, to make the cutting process easier.
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