Equipment Suggestions

On Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:02:36 -0700 (PDT), the infamous Rob scrawled the following:

It might help if you tell us what equipment, tools and experience you have now.

An obvious basic list starts here:

Drill press & billdrits

4" angle grinders, grinding wheels, and flap sanders 4x6" bandsaw w/ good bimetal blade hacksaw w/ GOOD bimetal blades small welder and decent helmet/gloves/apron/area to use them. welding table anvil sledge, chipping, and ball peen hammers new files of all sizes wire brushes from Oh Aitch 10 Brush (Hi, Tawm!) 4T portapower (when the gates warp on ya)

-- The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw

Bench or pedestal grinder

1/2" hand drill, I like the Magnum Hole Shooter Combination square Bench vise Drill press vise for holding small parts safely

These Harbor Freight tools might be useful to you;

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If you are going to do ductwork and sheetmetal, you will need a shear, a box and pan brake, power slitter, crimper-beader, flanger. A powered Metalworker for forming "S and Drive" and Pittsburgh and button-lock joints, standing seam joints, etc. A spot welder for attaching insulation retainer pins - long jaws to reach the center of the panels.

Note that this gear is Not Cheap - better be serious.

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Thank you all. I do have a lot of the tools suggested, next week I will be picking up my plasma cutter. For the duct work. I don't want to compete with the pieces which you can by at the locale hardware shops. I want to do the items which a unique to each job. Specialty items. What size of brake would be required? I am looking at a 50" box pan brake with interchangeable dies. Who would be a good source to buy some of the pieces? This might be a strange question but are there any books available? I have worked with metal for a while but more on a milling machine and not sheet.

Thanks, Rob

The air conditioning stuff is usually done as flat sheets with the edges formed to lock together, like forming big bends and transitions. Long sections of square duct are done as two L's that button-lock together, and use S and Drive style splines to lock lengths together.

Another way to do big ducts is form rolled strip stock into Spirolock round duct - it would look like a barber pole if painted along the seam. Perfect for use with exposed ceilings in "industrial" styled buildings. Can come off the machine as long as you need, but for practical purposes you want to make the sections 8' to 12' long for ease of handling, then flange one end and crimp the other so they couple together.

If you do ductwork, you also need gear for handling the blanket and semi-rigid fiberglass insulation on the inside. Round ducts are easy, they ship the insulation pre-formed in rigid tubes to slide inside - but you have to cut it into wedges yourself to line segmented elbows.

And remember that you can easily price yourself out of the market - I've done a lot of AC ductwork with raw sheetmetal and hand benders, pop rivets and "sharps" screws, only because the sheetmetal shop was WAY too proud of their custom work. It's not a Museum Piece, even though it may be air conditioning a museum... ;-)

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On Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:47:26 -0700 (PDT), the infamous Rob scrawled the following:

Ducting? Add Kevlar gloves and sleeves to your MUST HAVE list.

Since you're on a budget, look to eBay and

for machines and handtools.

Audel put out a comprehensive sheetmetal handbook, _Sheetmetal Pattern Work_, eons ago. See if you can find one.

I've learned a few things from authors such as Tim Remus and Ron Fournier.

For ornamental gates, look for books on repousse'.

Google for books on the work done by the particular equipment you buy.

-- The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw

----------------- Check with you local area community or technical college to see what courses they offer. These can get you off to a much faster start, and they should have text information.

Start with some Lindsay reprints. Cheap and to the point. {ask for catalog}

see

specifically steam boilers but the layout/development is the same other books include [be setting down when you look at the price]

Unka' George [George McDuffee]

------------------------------------------- He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman. Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).