Small metal box

[awemawson]

Well today I bent up a box to replace the plastic cover on the 'Automatic Oiler' on my Traub CNC Lathe. The original plastic one had been broken before I got it, and I can't count the number of times I've brushed past it an knocked it on the floor. No spare available so make one

This is a technique I've used a couple of times recently to good success. Mill a bending groove for bends, profile a sheet on the cnc mill, then bend by hand. This box I soldered using 'lead free' solder which works well on galvanised.

[DaveH]

Hi Andrew,
I think a few more words of wisdom are needed (for me). Can you just explain about the profiling and bending grooves.

DaveH

[awemawson]

Well for years, if I've needed to make a sharp bend in sheet metal, I'd cut a shallow groove where I needed the bend using a 1 mm disk in an angle grinder. OK for rough work but not too clever if it's out on show. So what I've done here is use the CNC mill to do the donkey work. The bending grooves were cut 0.5 mm deep using a 6 mm ball ended milling cutter, then the profile was cut out using a 6 mm normal end mill while he sheet was already mounted on a spoil board. As the box sides in this example were tapered it was much easier to lay it out in FeaturecAM than faff around with band saws or jig saws.

There's a bit more about it here:

http://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,9141.0.html

[Micktoon]

Hi Andrew , a nice neat job good idea cutting the grooves seems to work at treat.

Cheers Mick.

[DaveH]

Andrew,
Very neat.

DaveH

[TomG]

Nice job Andrew. I've used that technique on thicker sheet, but never something so thin. Looks like it worked out great.

Tom