Hi Ed and others,
This is an interesting topic as we would all like to be abel to make a fair amount of corrigated siding/roofing for ourselves for various building purposes and it shouild be fairly easy to do.
A patern maker friend made a two piece brass mold so that heavy Aluminum foil could be sandwiched betweem the two to form the corrigations but that was for 'O' scale and I'm in HO.
So Ok, here's a simple way to make your own corrigation press halves.
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The simplest method is to buy a sheet of preformed styrene from Evergreen Hill and cut two sections that are the scale size of the actual siding sheets but remember one will be a slight bit wider than the otrher to allow for the meshing of the two and attaching these to some other stiff backing so they can easily be squeezed together to form your cut sheets for you.
I've noticed that the foil pans often used in market bakery sections seems just right to make siding material from as it stiff enough to hold it shape very well but I've never measured it's thickness.
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Here are two other ways to also make molding block patterns;
The material you use is your choice but I would suggest some fairly stury wood like solid old Fir 2x4 sections cut in half or even a 2x2 section cut to form two halves, or you could basically use a couple of solid 1x4 boards or possibly some Plastic blocks.
1 st. You'll need a drill press of one type or another. Should you be lucky enough to have a mill your problem is solved. You'll also need some type of adjustable fence preferably with measurements on the fence table to make the adjustments easier and more precise each time you have to reposition the block for the next grove.
2 nd. For my era I'm using the original type of corrigated siding with the alternating rounded wave patern to it, fairly simple to cut some molding blocks. Each half should be half of the overall thickness of the wave patern.
3 rd. You'll also need a way to set up a fence type of guide so you can slide the material under a ball type of router to form the valleys and hills and then adjuist it back the required amount so the next pass can be made parellel to the others and at the proper spacing.
A Vernerier Calperier is very handy to use to determine the width of the spacing from some other corrigated material you might have.
Cut/mill both haves at the same time, so that when your finished one will fit/mesh into the other too compress the foil between the milled forms you just made.
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*4 th. I just thought of another way to accomplish the same thing without any of the above. Get yourself a couple of styrene blocks and some styrene rods the desired thichkness and make your self a form to go around the outside of blocks and high enough to allow the second block to be placed on top of the first with the rods sandwiched in between them so the fence form is high enough to keep them both aligned and square.
*4b. Start the aluminum foil cut to the height of the form and place one end into the form and up one edge a bit and place one of the rods on top of the foil along that edge, then while holding the foil in the up position place another rod against the foil and allow the foil to lay over the top of the second rod and then place a third rod and so on till you get the width filled.
*4c. Now you'll have some of the rods exposed and some barried beneath the foil. Put some styrene glue on the exposed rods and place the second styrene block on top of them till set up.
Turn over with the fence still around the blocks and put styrene glue on the now exposed rods and put the block back on them till set up.
Now you have your two mating halves which will form your aluminum sheeting for you. Now you won't need the fence so it might work out best to start fom one side and gently fold the other side down onto the lower block to allow the foil to adjust as it's being pulled by the bending process.
One of these methods should help you to make all the corrigated metal siding you want.
So now I guess I best get bussy making my own Corr Siding press.