Detailing with Lead Foil

[Gil]

Hi Charles,

I think what you're looking for is called "tooling foil". It is dead soft and can be easily formed for modeling purposes. Below on the right is an example. The left is made from soda can aluminum which is not malleable enough for forming.

+Gil

[cdavenport]

Originally Posted by scon10

OK, so rolling it to a smaller thickness is not easy.
You mentioned earlier, that you rolled it to a thickness of .005 inch, which would be like 0.13 mm, which is copying paper sheet thickness. Isn't that a bit thin for making various parts? I would imagine that a thickness of 0.33 mm, which compares to thin card, would be more handier to make things like carb air inlets on radial engines or cowlings.
How, for that matter, do you roll this material to such thinness? Do you have a rolling machine? It is very intriguing, this subject.

I do have a tabletop roll that I designed and fabricated based on the real thing. If you have a pasta roller, you have the same thing. You can also hammer the foil thinner, but the results are less uniform.

Lead, somewhat like gold, can be rolled incredibly thin. By gently working the foil with the tools I have described, you can work it into crevasses, in/around tiny details and compound curves with no distortion of the material. I am not much of a purist, so I will use it to form the spinners on the DH 88 I am building for another thread I have PM.

The thicker stuff is not as handy as you might think. It is a bit harder to work and the thickness throws the scale off. It's also heavy like you wouldn't believe! But, by all means, give it try and report your experience!

Here's a sampling of what's available in .005" or .127mm:

This is aluminum tooling foil. I have never used it so cannot comment on its malleability/ductility compared to lead.
Aluminum Craft Foil for Embossing & tooling : All Sizes & FAST SHIPPING

Check on Ebay for Tooling foil...tons of the stuff.

I have a bunch of brass foil, too. That is really useful for larger that have less detail. I may use that instead of lead for fenders and such. Brass also holds its shape better than lead.

[birder]

Facinating techniques, and lots of applications. I don't feel comfortable with lead if children in the house, used lead for rc sailboat keel weighting, but keep it out in the shop. Same with solder when the kids were little. That would look really cool on a Dh4 louvered cowl..

[cdavenport]

Originally Posted by birder

Facinating techniques, and lots of applications. I don't feel comfortable with lead if children in the house, used lead for rc sailboat keel weighting, but keep it out in the shop. Same with solder when the kids were little. That would look really cool on a Dh4 louvered cowl..

Lock the lead up. My father had the stuff around the house long before anyone started getting safety conscious about it, and I'm here to tell the story. Just treat it like you would your sharp knives and drugs: put in a secure place that children cannot access.

You can also acquire tooling brass/aluminum. I'm going to have to test the stuff out because I don't know how detailed you can get with it.

Here's another example of the detail you can achieve with lead. These 1/3 scale door pulls are made from lead foil embossed over hand-carved ivory talismans. The things measures, perhaps, 1" overall. Of course, the lead is primed and painted.

[Zathros]

Wow, I have this incredible, 20 lb. Pasta Roller that I would love to find some use for!! rolling metal sounds great!

[scon10]

The aluminium sounds promising, but unfortunately, they don't ship to Europe. I'll look around and see what I can find