Yesterday I made a metal box. It was my first time forging sheet metal, so I learned a lot and will do a number of things differently on my next try. Cutting the basic shape out of a sheet of metal with the plasma cutter worked great and was quick and easy. Here were some of the challenges:
1. Getting the entire seam hot enough on the forge to fold easily. Next time I will make a “long fire” with the coal forge, meaning that I will have a an active coal fire that is a bit bigger -- but long rather than just big.
2. Figuring out the best ordering of the folding up of the sides. The little corner folds (which were designed to be where I would fasten the sides together) need to be folded up first, but if they stick out 90 degrees they make folding the sides they are attached to difficult.
3. Don’t make the seams flex too much. In order to make the corners square, i folded the sides all the way over (rather than just 90 degrees) and then bent them back up to 90 degrees. This worked OK for the sides that were only bent once, but I folded the little corner folds a couple of times in and out and that caused the seam to become brittle and 2 of the 4 broke off.
The good news is that it mostly worked! I made a metal box! However, more practice will be required to make it an attractive box...