egawa+zbryk = barnacles: Barnacles

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, we had been wanting to utilize a local metal spinning business in one of our projects. United Metal Spinning Co. was founded in 1929 and is now a 4th generation family owned business. As somebody who enjoys turning, United Metal Spinning is a fascinating place. Their equipment runs the gamut from 100+ year old spinning lathes to the latest cnc technology. They are also ultra nice people to work with. If you have a project that requires spun metal, I would encourage you to contact them. http://umspinkc.com/

The first step in metal spinning is to create a mold for the metal to be spun over. These are 4 of the maple blanks that will become molds for the spun Barnacles shapes.

This shows one of the maple blanks attached to the lathe.

Larry Brennaman (a forth generation metal spinner) works on the maple blanks that will become the molds for "Barnacles".

When a mold is finished, it is then fastened to the headstock of a spinning lathe. Then a flat sheet of steel that has been cut into a circle with a registration hole in the center is attached to the tailstock side. The wood mold has a steel pin that holds the sheet in registration by means of pressure applied by the tailstock of the lathe. Once the flat sheet is secured, the spinning can begin.

Detail showing how a flat disc of steel is spun over a wooden mold. This is a pretty simple shape to spin. More complicated shapes may use multi part molds that can be disassembled and removed from the final spun shape. Also for very high production runs, a steel mold may be utilized.

One of United Metal Spinnings craftsmen working on the 18" diameter "Barnacles". Tools for metal spinning are much larger and heavier than their wood turning counterparts. A tremendous amount of leverage or pressure is required to form the steel. You can see this spinning tool has a steel roller on the end. For smaller thinner materials a spinning tool may just have a rounded blunt end and be held freehand.