This one is more of a ‘feature’ than a tour, but I’ve gotta give props for good work when I see it. Adam Deuling of Deuling Design has started his own small business building some beautiful hand made panels and signs from sheetmetal.

I still cruise around Pirate 4×4 even though I sold my offroad truck a couple of years ago. There are so many people on there that do some friggin awesome work. I came across an unassuming thread called ‘Metal Working Tools’ that was started by Adam Deuling and the further I got into the thread the more I was impressed by his work. In the thread he went from asking what a bead roller was in ~October of ’15 to creating his own small business using one about a year later!!

Since he lives ~700 miles away from me in Michigan, I wasn’t able to do an actual shop tour but I did send him a message and got his permission to steal some of his pictures to post here.

To keep this educational, I am going to post a couple of his projects with a snippet about some of the specialized tools he used to do them, then a gallery of more pictures at the end. Enjoy!

Bead Roller

One of the main tools Adam uses to do his custom metal artwork is a Bead Roller. Bead rollers clamp down a piece of sheet metal between two shaped dies. They can roll many different kinds of beads into the metal depending on what die you use. These are really handy in cases where you need to stiffen up sheet metal for structural use like in vehicle floorboards, panels, toolboxes, etc. On Adam’s projects he uses it to create 3d designs in the sheet metal.

Dimple Dies

In Adam’s case, his Woodward Bead Roller was flexing a little too much for his liking. So he got out his welder and some Dimple Dies and added some reinforcement and a wheel to help him go faster. Dimple Dies are used on sheetmetal to add strength. This is similar to how a bead roller works but it is a round die with a hole in the middle. These also help to lighten sheetmetal because after dimpling the sheet metal is just as strong if not stronger than it was before the hole was added.

Holes punched / drilled prior to using dimple dies.

Using the dimple die in his press.

Reinforced bead roller.

Here is a picture of the wheel Adam added to his bead roller to help him go faster.

Rivet Fan

Rivet Fans are actually something I have never used before. I am used to ‘eyeballing’ it, but the proper and fast way to do it is with a Rivet Fan. This device keeps constant spacing between the holes as you expand and contract it. Get it set to the spacing you like and use a sharpie to mark each hole. Not a big deal on small projects, but it can save a lot of time when doing large or multiple projects with lots of rivets.

Deuling Design Logo

Rivet Fan allows for perfectly spaced rivets.

Cleco Fasteners

After you use your rivet fan to mark and punch/drill your holes, you can use Cleco Fasteners to hold the two pieces together as you rivet them. I don’t know the whole story on these, but I believe they came from the aircraft world where most pieces are riveted together and must be aligned perfectly. They have since been brought over into the automotive realm to hold custom panels together. They come in multiple sizes with an installation tool.

Here is a home-made cleco fastener holder Adam made.

The cleco fasteners hold the two pieces together until you can replace them with rivets one by one. This way your pieces never get out of alignment.

A view of the backside of the Cleco Fasteners.

Throatless Shear

This tool is handy for trimming sheet metal quickly. Adam bought a Throatless Shear to trim and round off the edges of his sheetmetal signs.

Throatless Shear

Adam used his throatless shear to trim and round the corners of these signs without the cleanup and mess of a grinder.

More Pictures of Adam’s work:

In no particular order

Hope you all enjoyed. Adam creates some absolutely beautiful artwork with these tools. Please go check out Adam’s Facebook page or his post on Pirate 4×4 and send him a message because I know you need a cool sign for your Shop, Lakehouse, or gift for a family member.