This is a tank that I shaped for Rob from Criminal Customs for a one-off bike that he is building at his shop. Rob supplied me with a cardboard template of the shape he wanted, and I formed the metal to the buck. I made half the tank in a total of four pieces. Rob ended up changing his mind on the shape and we are going to shape a different style tank for him as you can see on the design and projects page.

This tank was made using a cardboard buck at Fay Butler’s shop in one of his seminars. It is made of 19 gauge cold rolled steel and was formed using the Pullmax, Yoder power hammer and planishing hammer. We put the design on the top of the tank by using a set of dies set up in the Pullmax machine. The tank is made of three pieces and was tig welded together with an Aerowave welder by me. The bottom of the tank was made of one piece forming it up to the shape with the use of a sheet metal brake.

The front of this tank was also made at one of Fay’s seminars. The interesting part about this shape is the amount of shrink that was involved in making it. When I paper-patterned the cardboard buck, it showed me that I had to remove about 2 inches of material to get the shape I wanted. Fay commented that we would not be able to shrink that much material, so our best plan would be to mechanically remove some material, weld it together, then shrink to get it to form to the buck. I finished the tank back at my shop by welding some sides on it and then welding the whole thing together. I am very happy with the almost completely round shape.

This is a good picture of the aluminum gas cap I made. I threaded the inside of the aluminum cap and then took a piece of steel and threaded the outside of that to make the neck, then welded that to the top of the tank. The edge of the cap is knurled and there is a small ridge on top. There is a difference in diameters from top to bottom to give the cap a sense of style. I thought the cap was simple and looked good.

The top of this tank was made at Fay Butler’s shop out of four pieces of steel. We fit the two sides of the tank together with a die that Fay had for the Pullmax machine. That allowed the parts to fit nicely on top of one another. Then Fay showed me how to buck a rivet and we proceeded to rivet the pieces together. Once I got the tank back to my shop, I welded the sides on it. I think it has a good look and shows compound curve work and riveting.

Here is a picture of me with the beginnings of that same tank at Fay Butler’s metal shaping class in February 2006. This photo courtesy of Fay Butler.

Here are a few pictures of the fuel tank I shaped for Greg Kruse’s custom bike. Greg made the wooden buck and I shaped the tank to his exact specifications. The tank is made of 19 gauge steel and I welded the three pieces together with ER70s-6 filler rod.

Here is a picture of the top of Greg Kruse’s fuel tank showing the Matt Hotch pop-up gas cap I welded in.

Here’s a tank I made for my FXR. I made the entire tank in my shop without a buck. I drew a picture of what I wanted and proceeded to shape from that thought. I don’t like to shape metal without a buck and over the six years that I have been shaping, I’ve learned you need a good plan to achieve a good compound curve.