[hal9000]

The key to not splitting metal when you're forming it is to go slow and get a feel for when the metal reaches its limits and then stop and re-anneal it. Depending on how much you need to stretch it, you can do several steps.

Some metals are more receptive to this than others. Stainless is pretty resistant to stretching no matter what and would probably have to be formed in a different, (commercial) style die (which is a more expensive and involved process than traditional home pressure forming and I'm really not familiar with it). Aluminum, copper, brass, and maybe some of the softer steels or thin stainless could be done this way but the process would vary slightly for each metal.


I've actually come up with what I think is a simpler idea.

I had an idea for a welded cartridge type suppressor that came from a write up of a square can for an uzi over on silencertalk.com.... have you ever used a chassis punch? They're used for cutting perfectly round, burr free holes in sheet metal. The result is a circular piece of metal (with a hole perfectly centered in it) that's been stretched and deformed in two dimensions so it looks kinda like a circular pringle chip. I'm thinking that stacking those concave to concave and convex to convex, or on a 90 degree bias, pinning them through the center and tack welding at the contact points around the edge and then reaming them true might create a very nice removable cartridge. Especially if they're made of stainless. It should still be pretty light too. It would be more of a baffle style than a cone style unit (not sure if I'm using the right terminology here).