Board logo

Neat ally panels
planetester - 25/9/04 at 05:44 PM

Just a bit of info for those about to make ally panels,
people use all sorts of methods to cut them from a big sheet & this sometimes leave the edges rough & distorted, Ive just made mine & used a £20 B&Q router, make a template from cardboard, draw around it on the ally panel, clamp a straight edge with G clamps to guide the router & away you go

hope this helps someone

madforfishing - 25/9/04 at 06:41 PM

Planetester, what router bit did you use to cut the Ali ? Anything special, or those bits that come with the router as a set of usually six or so.
I had 2 cheap routers before they died and became a false economy. They're ok if you use them now and again though.
Rick

OX - 25/9/04 at 08:34 PM

i used a stanley knife to score some deep lines and then snapped it off,i made all my inner panels this way but it does leave a sharp edge,next time i think i'll be tempted to buy the router,£20 sounds like a bargain

Rob Lane - 25/9/04 at 09:37 PM

Mentioned before but a TCT blade in a circular saw works well for straight cuts.

planetester - 25/9/04 at 09:45 PM

used just a standard 1/4" carbide bit that came with the router, I used 16swg aircraft grade fully hardened alloy for my floor & it cut it quite easily

Mark Allanson - 25/9/04 at 09:48 PM

Whats wrong with tin snips? Perfect cut, faster that cutting paper with scissors.

RoadkillUK - 26/9/04 at 12:08 AM

One of these does a lovely job.


blueshift - 27/9/04 at 12:20 AM

I don't know if you have some kind of magic tin snips, I have straight cut "aircraft type" (I think?) tin snips and they leave one side serrated and the other side bent. plus you get into some serious bending if you try and cut more than about 3" in.

I got a drill powered nibbler at donnington, it's brilliant. slices through aluminium like butter, does curves, straights (with a guide), etc. highly reccomended.

stephen_gusterson - 27/9/04 at 09:04 AM

an air nibbler - dont they max out at about 1.2mm?


I used a hand nibbler from machine mart. costs about 7 quid and did 2mm alu no probs. might be a bit hard on the hand with steel tho!

atb

steve





quote:
Originally posted by RoadkillUK
One of these does a lovely job.




[Edited on 27/9/04 by stephen_gusterson]

Kitlooney1000 - 27/9/04 at 09:12 AM

i found a jigsaw with ali blade worked perfectly fine

blueshift - 27/9/04 at 10:52 AM

the drill nibbler does up to 2mm alu or steel I think.

DarrenW - 29/9/04 at 02:52 PM

i tried tin snips for a bulhead panel - definitely looks second hand. Will be trying air nibbler next.

Ive just bought a rotozip from ebay (£30 - bargain) to cut out fibreglass etc, has anyone used one of these for ali?

Cheers,
Darren.

alfasudsprint - 29/9/04 at 08:30 PM

used a jigsaw with special ali blade too...perfect! protected ali with making tape on jigsaw, cut holes everything.

Peteff - 29/9/04 at 10:10 PM

Aldi's offer next week is a router and bits for £17.99. It won't break the bank if you f*%K it up.

planetester - 30/9/04 at 10:05 PM

I just wanted to tell people of a good, cheap way of doing there panels,

Tin snips make it look like a dogs dinner

I dont think you will get an electric nibbler for under £70

You wont cut flooring thickness ally with a sharp knife,

just trying to help

stephen_gusterson - 30/9/04 at 10:45 PM

and so you have...... other people just like to add to the debate. my hand nibbler works, but it takes effort..


atb

steve

OX - 30/9/04 at 11:08 PM

quote:
Originally posted by planetester

You wont cut flooring thickness ally with a sharp knife,



i wouldnt know my floor was cut for me ,but the 1.5 mm innner panels i made and didnt cut all the way through it ,just some deep lines and bent it over and it snaps ,a bit fiddly but it was all i had at the time to do the job
and you have helped becouse i will be buying a router next time. thank you

stephen_gusterson - 1/10/04 at 08:48 AM

its like most things in my build - having bum all acess to proper metalwoking tools needs a lot of improvation.

Cutting approx 8mm per 'wrist action' does rather develop the muscles tho when you do all the cutting - which has got to be in excess of 20mts of cuts - easily.

Im staying away from the wrist jokes......




atb

steve

MikeP - 1/10/04 at 12:29 PM

There's probably some better tricks for using aviation snips than I've found, but one that works for me: I use anything to rough out the cut, leaving about 12mm (1/2" from the cut line I want. I've got one of the air nibblers in the picture, it's easy and quick. After final shaping and fitting I finish the cut with the aviation snips, using the correct handed one to push the waste material up and away from the sheet. Probably obvious to most of you, but my snips rusted in my tool box for years till I figured that out...

stephen_gusterson - 1/10/04 at 01:38 PM

aviation snips come in a set of 3 - straight, left and right handed cut. I have all three, virtually prisine and unused!

atb

steve

irvined - 4/10/04 at 03:37 PM

I have a steel floor, and used a grinder and a very fine cutting disc, really straight edge, quite noisey but very little bending. I did need to file it down a bit as there was lots of sharp bits, but i'm quite happy with it.

That was however before i bought my air nibbler which goes through anything up to 2mm like a hot knife through butter.

Before that I also had a machine mart drill nibbler thing, it was good at cutting but a little fragile.


D