Doming block

I've got some nice dome ends on my (yet to be finished ) TV stand here;



I do them with this doming block I made;



It's made from a piece of flat section (FS) mild steel 10mm x 150mm x 100mm and, this one, will dome up to a 75mm diameter piece of metal.

The basic bowl shape is made using a 125mm angla grinder with 115mm cutting disc on it. The cuts are made from the bowl's centre point from various angles. The bowl is then smoothed using a 115mm fibre disc on the same angle grinder until the shape is uniform. It takes about 20 mins to make.

To make a dome I cut out a circle of metal first, to the correct size of the tube it will be welded to.

If the metal is under 2mm thick I will use the super plastic hammer shown in the left of picture (I've rounded one end of this one with a fibre disc for this purpose). If the thickness is over 2mm I will gently use the ball on a ball pein hammer to concave it.



The dome is then tacked in place and then seam welded and cleaned up. Easy

Happy doming...

nice neat ends like it, did a dish once on a sandbag. was ally though, i dont know if steel of any thickness could be done like i did, it was many years ago. for a school project, it didnt go down well. i quite liked my 1 1/2 foot tall free standing ashtray.

It's quite the last way I'd have thought of doing it, I guess cos I'm used to basing out aluminium on dollies, wooden hammerforms and sandbags. Yet that's a way that's pretty much perfect for your application.

I'd have never thought of using a grinder to do the work though. Lazybones that I am, I'd have asked my friendly machinist to do it in the lathe (after he finishes my bellmouths).

I normally do small domes over the end of a peice of tube. Its easy to get hammer marks in the face if your not carefull though.