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?

"Carl McIver" wrote in message
...
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

On Oct 28, 10:52 pm, "Carl McIver" wrote:
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 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

Carl McIver wrote:
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?



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:
....
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

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

Jim Wilkins wrote:

On Oct 29, 11:59 am, Randy Replogle wrote:
...

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


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

Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Patron Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/


Randy Replogle wrote:
Carl McIver wrote:
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?


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


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Jim Wilkins wrote:
On Oct 29, 11:59 am, Randy Replogle wrote:
...
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

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


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

On Oct 29, 4:39 pm, Trevor Jones wrote:
Jim Wilkins wrote:
On Oct 29, 11:59 am, Randy Replogle wrote:
...

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

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.


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

"Martin H. Eastburn" wrote:

Should be pickled then painted.
Martin

Nope, brushed and anodized.