Any idea how i can make a mesh dome? Got the mesh (BnQ fine diamond style mesh) and got a rectangular hole with rounded corners in the bonnet.

Now i want to create a dome to go instead of a bonnet bulge. I had thought the best way would be to beat the mesh into shape with a soft ball hammer in the same way you would sheet metal.

Any other ideas?

Cheers

Laying the mesh onto a bag of sand might help.

If its the easily bendable stuff in B&Q you may be better off with thick gloves and forming it by hand to start with.

The bag of sand idea would probably work quite well.

If its aluminium then it will be easy to bend by hand. if its steel, then you should have got aluminium

Depends on what shape of dome. If it's soft and bendable then place it over a bucket and push a football down on top of it.

how about making a hole out of wood, pushing it into that with the football, then making something to hold the ends of the mesh in place, take the something and then attach that to the underside (or top if it looks nice) of your hold in the GRP.

Oh and return the football to the lad you 'borrowed' it off )

the mesh from B&Q is expanded mesh - basically a sheet of metal with many slots cut into it and then stretched.

In theory it could be push back together to form one solid sheet or streteched even further so you are not limited as you would be with solid sheet.

the way I would do it is try to make a former out of ply but sandwiching pieces end on and then either sand down smoot or put cloth or similar on top . Put mesh on top and press down. Dunno if it would work.

Hi Findlay234

You can do it quite easily using a kind of Hammerform technique. If you look at my website you will see how I made the bulge for the Phoenix bonnet.

Do this in the same way. Cut out the shape eg circle in a piece of ply and another identical shape but a couple of mm larger all round. Sandwich the mech between the two and this is the important bit, clamp it together with as many clamps as you have or better still screw the two pieces of wood together. With the mesh securely fastened you can now start forming. Ideally you need a forming head like a football that has a similar radius to the one you want to form. Gently tap the mesh and start to form the dome. Work progressively round until you have achieved an even curvature.

I hope this helps but please U2U me if you need more information.

atb

John

cheers for that guys, think im going to go for this hammerform style. ill let you know how it goes.

cheers
fin