i decided that sisnce i am going to be riding this bike i want to have a saddlebag on one side. i did some sketches the made a pattern. i traced the pattern to this sheet of .040 al, then i added 3/4in around the outside to allow for my radiused corners that i am going to do on this box.
i just used a scrap of 1 1/8in tube as a dolly to hammer the edge over. having a tight radius bend in the dolly makes the corneres on the pattern bend nicely.
here it is all radiused. if you work your bends slowly as you more around the part you will end up with out wrinkled corners like you would if you were to hammer each area to its full arc before moving forward.
on the second side i desided to try starting out my bend with a flanging tool(aka cresent wrench) this helped allot to define the edgeand keep my flange height more consistant. i use this method all the time.
i am going to jazz this bag up a bit with a grid pattern of swedged holes like the ones i did on the plate mount. here i am laying out where they are going to end up. i center drilled them with a 1/8in pilot. i will wait untill the box is hammer and dollied after welding to swedge the holes. straightening the box with a bunch of swedged holes would make for a tricky job so i will treat the holes once the box is square.
cleaco your part down flat and scribe and cut an even line around the edge so that your part has an even flange height. this will make the center strip easyer to cut and hopefully make your box have a better chance of ending up square.
tack all around the box before doing any final welds, if you can do any hammer and dolly work before sewing the box up.
when your done welding do any hammer and dolly work you need to to straighten out any warpage due to welding, then you can use a grinder and a body file to take the welds down.
here it is sitting on the bike, next up building the top for the box and choosing a latch.
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