Can anyone do sheet metal work?
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old_coyote_pedaller
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Do you have a decent size vice? If so, you can bend it using that, better than trying to hold it then bend it round a former. Grip an edge in vice with a fold line marked, using something like some thin aluminium sheet on vice jaws so as not to mark/scratch the stainless steel. Using a thick piece of wood around the same size as the bit above jaws to spread load and protect from marks, hit with hammer till bent. From my experience the actual fold line is not as accurate as using a brake machine but close enough.
The holes on sides for mounting bolts for bottle cages can be fitted with T-nuts instead of separate nuts.
Do you have a decent size vice? If so, you can bend it using that, better than trying to hold it then bend it round a former. Grip an edge in vice with a fold line marked, using something like some thin aluminium sheet on vice jaws so as not to mark/scratch the stainless steel. Using a thick piece of wood around the same size as the bit above jaws to spread load and protect from marks, hit with hammer till bent. From my experience the actual fold line is not as accurate as using a brake machine but close enough.
The holes on sides for mounting bolts for bottle cages can be fitted with T-nuts instead of separate nuts.
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Aw shame, i could have knocked that up in about 1/2 an hour at the Accoustic ventilation place i was working at......but they laid me off 2 weeks ago!!!
Quite a lot of garages use 'Hand folders' for forming patch pieces for sills when welding so that might be worth a try.
Failing that you need a vice, a G clamp and 2 pieces of plate significantly thicker than what you are folding. Mark the plate where you want the fold and clamp 1 plate to the workpiece, on the mark, in the vice. Use the G clamp to clamp the other plate approx the thickness of the plate above the line.....and heave.... If you work piece is more than about 25mm long you can do the same method but double up on plates so you are sandwiching the workpiece.
Aw shame, i could have knocked that up in about 1/2 an hour at the Accoustic ventilation place i was working at......but they laid me off 2 weeks ago!!!
Quite a lot of garages use 'Hand folders' for forming patch pieces for sills when welding so that might be worth a try.
Failing that you need a vice, a G clamp and 2 pieces of plate significantly thicker than what you are folding. Mark the plate where you want the fold and clamp 1 plate to the workpiece, on the mark, in the vice. Use the G clamp to clamp the other plate approx the thickness of the plate above the line.....and heave.... If you work piece is more than about 25mm long you can do the same method but double up on plates so you are sandwiching the workpiece.
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kvs766, that's very kind of you. I've actually ordered 2 pieces of 1.5mm thick stainless steel sheet.
I'm going to try using the vice, but if that doesn't work, I'll get in touch and send a piece to you for you to bend for me.
Here's what I want to make:
I've done bits and bobs before and what I usually do is make a drawing to scale like this, then print it on a piece of paper and stick it to the piece of metal with some spray glue, then do all my cutting and drilling to the drawing. Once I've got all the holes and bent it, I'll radius the corners and smooth the edges so that there are no sharp bits.
kvs766, that's very kind of you. I've actually ordered 2 pieces of 1.5mm thick stainless steel sheet.
I'm going to try using the vice, but if that doesn't work, I'll get in touch and send a piece to you for you to bend for me.
Here's what I want to make:
I've done bits and bobs before and what I usually do is make a drawing to scale like this, then print it on a piece of paper and stick it to the piece of metal with some spray glue, then do all my cutting and drilling to the drawing. Once I've got all the holes and bent it, I'll radius the corners and smooth the edges so that there are no sharp bits.
old_coyote_pedaller
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Looking at that drawing, it may be more difficult to bend it properly compared to the actual bracket you are copying.
The reason I'm saying this is that the big holes edges are close to fold line so it will be harder to bend thin edge of hole cleanly. The bracket you are copying has the bigger hole edge right on fold line so no problem with that. I almost mentioned this in earlier post in relation to smaller hole, I was going to suggest leaving cutting that one out till after you had bent metal into final shape. On the other hand, if you have room in jaws of vice you could hold the centre part of bracket in vice and bend the outer edges since there is more material to "hit" in your drawing than the original. I suppose you could cut out around outer bolt holes after bending.
Looking at that drawing, it may be more difficult to bend it properly compared to the actual bracket you are copying.
The reason I'm saying this is that the big holes edges are close to fold line so it will be harder to bend thin edge of hole cleanly. The bracket you are copying has the bigger hole edge right on fold line so no problem with that. I almost mentioned this in earlier post in relation to smaller hole, I was going to suggest leaving cutting that one out till after you had bent metal into final shape. On the other hand, if you have room in jaws of vice you could hold the centre part of bracket in vice and bend the outer edges since there is more material to "hit" in your drawing than the original. I suppose you could cut out around outer bolt holes after bending.
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I shall drill the little holes, then make the bends. Once bent, I can see how sturdy the whole thing is before I put any extra holes in it.
I could maybe do a bit of "drillium", it would be easier than mucking about with a jigsaw and cutting out square holes, something like this:
I shall drill the little holes, then make the bends. Once bent, I can see how sturdy the whole thing is before I put any extra holes in it.
I could maybe do a bit of "drillium", it would be easier than mucking about with a jigsaw and cutting out square holes, something like this:
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agree with old coyote
metal will distort
stick paper to metal i use spray carpet addesive
drill all small holes (these are most important as they are the locating holes )
i can cut shape to lines then bend paper should remain fixed
then you can remove larger areas off metal
agree with old coyote
metal will distort
stick paper to metal i use spray carpet addesive
drill all small holes (these are most important as they are the locating holes )
i can cut shape to lines then bend paper should remain fixed
then you can remove larger areas off metal
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The project is on hold for the minute.
Having done some measuring, which I probably should have done earlier, I realise that for it to work, I would need to make the bracket a fair bit longer, so that the bottles are higher up the down tube and clear my toes.
Back to the drawing board.
The project is on hold for the minute.
Having done some measuring, which I probably should have done earlier, I realise that for it to work, I would need to make the bracket a fair bit longer, so that the bottles are higher up the down tube and clear my toes.
Back to the drawing board.
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any reason you can't have two in line?
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