Help! Tricky Sheet Metal Edge

[stiffler13]

Well I'm actually brand new to working with metal and I want to make a sort of organizer out of a piece of sheet metal with walls of like 3in or so. The trick is I want to make it out of 1 sheet without having to weld or rivot or whatever. I really just want to either bend it or cut out little pieces in order to bend up the walls seperating each compartment. And the thing is I don't want uniform square compartments, in which case I know how to bend it. I would like it to consist of rectangles that are all different sizes and kindof piece together like a puzzle. But in some areas I would have to create a "T" shaped wall instead of the normal "+" or cross walls. I'm not sure how to exactly explain the problem. Here are some basic pictures of what I want it to look like. They are just 2D overhead shots on grid paper and I circled the places where I am having trouble drawing the whole thing on one sheet all layed out with cuts and bends shown. Actually I'm having trouble with drawing the whole thing. I am trying to make this as a gift for my dad but I've never worked with metal and he doesn't got the time to help me with this so I've turned to you guys. I hope you can help and even help me blueprint this out on paper. Ohh and just incase this matters, its going to be about 9in by 7in hopefully when and if it can be done, so its going to be kinda small. And I will appreciate any tips at all. Thank you for your time!

 

[bigbadbugga]

I think I have figured out what you are trying to do.

If I where you I would make it from thick cardboard first and then transfer it to steel.

Make each compartment as a seperate 'tray' with folded up sides, and then make one large 'tray' which all the smaller ones fit into.

Looking at your drawings it will be impossible to make in one piece.

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

yes, try to find some card about the same thickness as your metal, and fold it up from that.

If there are any tricky parts and you're just experimenting then maybe use A4/letter paper before you get to the card. Make up your box, fix with sticky tape or glue, etc, and then cut it to open it flatten it...

then use that to mark up and cut your card on one piece. If you can do it to the card then you can do it with the metal too.

Regards
Peter

 

[Hitch]

I am a bit confused, if you are making it out of one piece, where is the material for the compartment dividers coming from?
You could make cut outs, then fold up to get the dividers, but then you wont have any bottoms....
And how are you going to bend it? You will need specific length tooling top and bottom to allow you to do that.

 

[stiffler13]

ok thank you bigbadbugga and peterd51. Yeah i like the idea of making smaller trays then putting them in a bigger tray