Shrinking disks? Anyone ever tried them

Milan H · Post by **Milan H** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 3:52 pm

I was talking to a buddy of mine who is a hell of a Metal finish autobody guy (old school approach that uses almost no fillers like bondo)

He mentioned something called a shrinking disk for helping pull high spots out of sheet metal. The disk is stainless, put on a grinder and run over the surface heating just the high spots. You then spray everything with cold water to shrink the high spots down.

I was thinking this might be a nice way to take care of some random hammer strikes and helping smooth stuff out. Not the most traditional but seems cool.

Thoughts guys? Anyone tried it?

Cheers!

RalphS · Post by **RalphS** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 4:51 pm

I think it very much depends on the thickness of the metal you're working with. I'd stick with a grinder for armour work.

raito · Post by **raito** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 5:35 pm

It's not a technique I'd use for armour. It's fine for panel work where you might have a bulge that's, say, a couple inches across and a tenth inch or so high. Not so good for a random bump from a ball pein. And no good at all on tool marks, which are in the surface more than in the shape.