Method of making metal workpiece

A method for contouring a workpiece for an article of manufacture, the method including the steps of:

• selecting a starting metal blank having a uniform wall thickness along the length thereof and a constant outside dimension substantially the same outside dimension as desired for producing a first constituent of length desired for a contoured workpiece,
• reducing the cross sectional size of an end portion of said starting metal blank remote to said first constituent of length;
• operating a gripper to engage said end portion produced by said step of reducing;
• drawing said starting metal blank only partly through a contoured die or only partly through each one of a succession of contoured dies to reduce the outside dimension essentially only along a part of said starting metal tube without producing an appreciable increase to the uniform wall thickness for producing a desired dimension along a second constituent length desired for said contoured workpiece;
• working the metal of said starting metal blank concurrently with said step of drawing to form said second constituent of length in said starting metal blank;
• and
• cutting an increment of length essentially comprised of said end portion from said starting metal blank to define a desired aggregate length for said contoured workpiece.