Rework of 4000 sheet metal parts-adding a larger hole

[oldbikedavey]

If you can get the tooling made up by Monday lunchtime and get started you could probably be done for an early finish on Friday

Then off for an extremely well deserved week or two away somewhere warm.....

 

[sako243]

I know Mark at CLH trailers has made jigs that reference off various bits of their high def 8x4m plasma table so it would be a case of dropping the parts in if they can be externally referenced off a corner and then just pressing go.

 

[Gareth J]

What's the cost to just bin them and start again from new sheet? Presumably a CNC machine (laser or plasma) could tessellate a full sheet's worth in one go.

Maybe, by the time you buy the press tooling and rework the holes manually, it's cost effective to just start over...

A halfway house might be to build a jig to allign a full CNC bed's worth of parts in one go. Though that sounds hard to maintain accuracy.

 

[skotl]

2 pieces of wood one to slot into the hole thats already there

the next piece of wood smaller than the size you need to be used with the plasma torch put an arrow on the longer side and a mark on the metal

slot the wood and then get cutting a plasma will cut them quickly enough

Aye, for one. But 4,000? After you...

(plus remaking the wood templates every 5-10 cuts as they get burned)

 

[hotponyshoes]

I know Mark at CLH trailers has made jigs that reference off various bits of their high def 8x4m plasma table so it would be a case of dropping the parts in if they can be externally referenced off a corner and then just pressing go.

If the hole location doesn't need to be super accurate, and you can find someone friendly with a cnc cutter, you might just be able to jig them by tack-welding bits of angle to the slats.
As long as the gantry will clear the upstanding bits already on the parts and you can manually program a tool path to avoid them.
But any jigs won't work with a bed sweeper so aside from the 8000 times you need to load and unload you'll have to pick 4000 off-cuts out manually as well.

Also, as someone said earlier, I think I would rather be constantly doing something rather than loading a machine then standing around waiting for it to cut.
But if the machine was big enough and you bypassed a few safety features you could start it cutting then replace pieces as it's running..

 

[6ply]

Got a problem at work where we've got some sheet metal plates, 1.5mm thick, mild steel, around 250x150mm total size. They've currently got a hole around 25x25mm, which needs to be around 63x67mm. I was thinking laser or punching.
Laser looks like a potentially more of a lead time than we'd like, how long would it likely take to get a press tool made and anyone got a rough idea of cost? I'm assuming 1.5mm steel probably sits within the capability of a half decent fly press?
(I'm sure I'm missing some needed information, I'm well within I don't even know what I don't know for this sort of operation)

How close to 63*67 do you need? If you are flexible over sizing, these might do? It would be interesting to know how they perform.

 

[gaz1]

Aye, for one. But 4,000? After you...

(plus remaking the wood templates every 5-10 cuts as they get burned)

true but loading a hydraulic press is going to be harder as its going to be load then press then reload per sheet

but a plasma pentograph can be loaded at same time as cutting another sheet and using the shape of a cut out can make it quicker

 

[500e]

Iron worker dies are relatively cheap and fast delivery