Trip to Baileigh Industrial

Time to geek-out on equipment (again)!  In this case, we are talking about metal forming…
I picked up a few things from Baileigh Industrial this week for the studio.  A big combination shear/brake/roll, a really cool magnetic box and pan brake, and the most-awesome-thing-in-the-universe MH-19 Multi Hammer.  This should make quick work of anything I plan on doing with stainless, aluminum, mild steel, and copper.  Sheet metal equipment could have been bought over the phone, but not the Multi Hammer... 

My new Multi Hammer

After talking with Shane Henderson at Baileigh, he was able to set up some time with Chris Rusch at Rusch Machine & Design who actually invented the MH-19.  I figured who better to give me a crash course on how to use the thing?

Little did I know that upon my arrival in Wisconsin, I would be welcomed by a blizzard.

Risking my life for the chance to hang out with Chris Rusch

After driving for a couple of hours, I finally reached Chris at his shop.  There we spent a few hours going over the design of the MH-19 and a hands-on walkthrough on how to shape metal.

This machine is awesome!  It makes short work of shrinking and stretching metal.  The bowl we were working on only took about 20 minutes to create.  If you’ve ever hammered metal before, you know what an advantage this means to the studio.

After only 20 minutes of hammering!

I see some industrial lighting in my future…