I've been making a few front panels for equipment lately and I see more on the horizon. Has anyone made jigs for securing these in milling machines and how did you do it? Could these be available on the market?
I've always simply clamped them using regular mill-dogs and wooden spacers (so as not to mar the surface...). If you are going to do repetitive pieces, clamp a piece of angle iron to the mill table as an alignment stop.
Jerry
I clamp a thick plywood base to the table and use 1-2-3 blocks for edge stops. After drilling the easier small round holes I put wood screws through them to clamp the plate flat for more difficult milling and boring.
Save your aluminum Greenlee punchouts to use as washers for this.
On my Clausing I can attach the blocks to the small tee slot in the front of the table to get an easy reference surface. I tried that on an RF-31 mill-drill and found that the table moved at a slight angle to its edges and slots. It was good enough for control panels, though.
Jim Wilkins
Not a fixture but a suggestion.....
If you do a lot you may want to start from scratch with 6061-T6 sheet. It machines much better. Of course, they'd have to be painted. Randy
On Oct 29, 11:59 am, Randy Replogle wrote: ...
5052 is better if you want to stiffen thin panels with a flange on the edges. It will bend to a tighter radius without cracking, for example 0.050" 5052 can be bent on a 3-in-1 combo machine with no or very thin padding over the male dies. 0.062" 6061 would probably crack.Most of the panels I've made were for in-house test stand use and a wire brush or Scotchbrite finish was more than adequate.
Jim Wilkins
6061-T6 would likely crack. 6061-T0 (tee- zero), no chance
Don't confuse the material, with the hardness of the temper.
Draw a line on the panel, where you want to bend, with a Sharpie marker. Run along the line with a torch, untill the line dissapears.
Dead soft!
Pretty much the same effect can be had by sooting along the line, with an Acet. torch, but without all the soot snots floating around the shop.
Aside from that, a propane torch works fine for the heat, not so good for the soot. :-)
Cheers Trevor Jones
Should be pickled then painted. Martin
Mart> Carl McIver wrote:
The panels I have done are not bent. They have "notches" in the sides for mounting with screws. You're right, 6061-T6 doesn't bend well. Randy
I did a bunch of work that involved bending complicated brackets out of 1" flat bar, 1/8" thick. After several frustrating attempts, I went to my local metal supplier, who looked at me with an enlightened grin and walked over to his 8' hydraulic shear. He took a sheet of
1/8" 5052 (aluminum sheet metal, basically), and sheared 1" strips off the long edge. I took them home and, not surprisingly, they worked perfectly. I went back recently and got about 100' sheared for me for future projets.ww88
Nope, brushed and anodized.
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.