For those of you working with steel tubes this handy program generates a template you wrap around the tube to provide an accurate cut line for the joint. Tube miter program Later, papa al PS now how you cut that line is up to the real fabricatin' experts ... not me
i like the sharpies...but i usually use stabilo soap pencils...they are cheap,they are the same ones pinstripers mark their stuff with and paint right over it...a little spit on the tip of your finger erases it...no worries about it bleeding through your paint job and they come in every color imaginable so they are easy to see...easy to correct mistakes....sometimes i'll lay it out in one color and then make adjustments..then make the final drawing in a different darker color...cut on the darkest
thats a neat program laverda, but do we cut on the dotted line, or cut on the solid line? and dont forget to convert inches to millimeters, by multiplying the inches by 25.4
[ QUOTE ] When using a tape measure and you need an accurate measurement, start at the 1 inch mark. The agled thing on the end isn't always accurate. [/ QUOTE ] That angled thing on the end is for wood work and is meant to be loose (for measuring inside & outside dimensions -works on steel too, but I don't trust it). Had a co-worker hammer the rivets down so it wouldn't wiggle and be more "accurate" once - DOH! I use sharpies for marking sheetmetal cuz they're water soluable. Simple wipe-down when yer done...
Wowcars, To stop your hole saw wandering when cutting holes in thin steel or aluminium, drill the pilot hole and then replace the pilot bit in the holesaw with some 1/4" rod. It will locate the saw but not elongate the pilot hole.
hot tips- square off the end of tubing= cut tube (hacksaw,chopsaw, bandsaw) then take it to disc sander with cut end square to disc, roll tube back and fourth, it finds the high spots and is just as good as lath. I use window caulk or "dum dum" to hold everything . to tack or just mock up, its like chewing gum . lath tip= run your tool up against your piece with buisness card between them ,if your tools to high card leans away at top ,at you if to low. hillbilly. make a couple of pizza cutter looking tools with diffirent incriments marked, if your laying out alot of rivets,just roll on line and mark as you go ,instead of holding tape. speaking of paper layout. I use poster board for sheet metal , but on complex shapes I will use a sheet of notebook paper, cut slits with sissors on each side of sheet but not all the way through. lay into shape you want to copy (potato chip) the slices in paper will either spread or over lap each other, tou can tape slices to keep the shape . it tells me where and how much to shrink or stretch or both in that piece.
Furter to tubemiter progam .. an excerpt from the author. SNIP Tubemiter.exe A tube mitering program for Windows to print on any printer. The other one is a Hypercard application for Macintosh, and once I dug up a Mac and a PostScript printer, it was very useful. However, it doesn't take wall thickness into account, which is important when doing small angles or equal sized tubes. My program also deals in metric units. File/Settings... puts up a dialog box. You input: * Diameter (in mm) of tube being mitered * The wall thickness of this tube * The second tube diameter (the one it abuts up to) * The included angle in degrees. It paints the picture on the window, and File/Print... prints it on any connected printer. There are two curves - the dotted one is the template you would cut if the wall thickness were zero (similar to the HyperCard program's output) and the solid curve is the template corresponding to the requested wall thickness. If the mitered tube diameter is greater than the second diameter, then the second tube p***es through two holes in the mitered tube. This situation is handled by continuing the template on the other side. Small gaps may appear in the curves; this is a known "feature" of the way the program works. Giles Puckett giles@research.canon.com.au SNIP The Chopper Builders Handbook suggested that some 'fudging' may have to occur as the program works best for thin walled tubing (bicycle dimensions) . later, papa al
I'm big on templates. For instance, say you're putting together a rear end with a model A spring. Make up a piece of 2" angle with two pieces of 3/4" round stock welded to it perfectly square with each other 47-1/4" center to center. Use it to hold your spring perchs while welding. You'll be sure to hold your perches paralel, critical for optimum spring performance. Got one for a shock too with 5/8" id tubing at each end. They work great.
I also like using cardbord or chipboard for templates for brackets or parts with out compound curves, but for parts with compound curves(sheetmetal body panels) use the "green" 18 or 36" masking paper. The green is 3m but any of the thicker brands of masking paper would work. By using the paper to make a pattern, you will be able to see where the metal needs to be shrunk or streched. By putting pleats in the paper to tighten it up (from the edge) you should be able to get the paper to fit nice and tight and flat against the panel you are trying to duplicate or repair. Also use magnets to hold the paper while getting it to fit. After you are happy with the fit, you cam unfold the pleats, take a center punch and punch holes along the lines left in the paper from the pleats, place your template on the flat sheetmetal to be used, trace over the punched holes with a sharpie, vola, now you can see where you mwtal will need to be shrunk and about how much. Good luck - it takes a little practice to get the patterns perfect, but after you do it makes life much easier.
I often use opened-up cereal boxes for template material. (Two teenage sons = lots of empty cereal boxes) You can even use the creases for parts with bends. Steve.
For making straight cuts on round tubing, stainless hose clamp wrapped around the tubing and tightened will give you a perfectly square cut line. You can also leave the clamp on and it will serve as a decent guide for the hacksaw blade. Steve.
Need 3 hands to solder, but only have 2? Take a spray can lid upside down, and cut some slits in it 180 degrees apart. Use the slits to hold the wire so both hands are free to hold the solder and the iron. -Bugman Jeff
For the pipe and tubing templates, I use rubberbands for those if I don't just "eyeball it". The hose clamp idea works for 'square' cuts, but the rubber band can be positioned exactly how you want it...at different angles...then serve as a guide for your hacksaw!
The spring jig is pretty simple. Picture a piece of angle with a 3" piece of 3/4" solid round stock welded to it at right angles and another piece your perch dimension away perpendicular to the angle and parellel to the other round stock. Slide the ends into the perches, you'll be sure of no spring bind.
Here's another one for pattern making. When you are making a patch to fill a hole that you can get behind, simply put a slightly oversized s**** of chipboard behind the hole and mist a coat of weldable primer over the area. This leaves a much sharper line to cut on the chipboard than a sharpie. I **** weld my patches in and this gives me the smallest gap on the finished patch. You could use krylon but would have to remove it before welding in the patch. Also, put your chipboard in the brake and make a nice bend. Over the edge or the workbench aint always good enough. A comp*** you can lock at a specific measurement makes trasfering irregular contours to a patch help up against the adjacent panel easy. Just measure how much the new panel needs to move in towards the "master", set your comp*** at that distace (point to pencil) and run the point along the contoured master. The pencil side will mark the patch to the proper cut line to bring the patch up tight. Man that is confusing, can someone do better on that concept?
When I am building a full frame, I fabricate the side rails first. Once they are done, they should be identical. I then clamp the two rails together side-by-side. Then I take a 2" wide square and draw sharpie line across both frame rails at 2" intervals, all the way from front to back. Now once the front and rear crossmembers are welded in, it makes it very easy to place anything at exactly the same point on both frame rails-I.E. ****** crossmembers, headlight mounts, shock brackets etc etc. Since all frames taper from front to rear, there is no other way as simple to guarantee symetrical placement, this makes it a snap. Heres a couple pics you can see the sharpie marks across the top of the rails on
Redrilling holes to a (slightly) larger size. Gives you the ****s when the bit chatters all around and distorts or oversizes your hole. Solution: Tear a small piece of rag and fold in half a couple of times. Place it over the hole to be enlarged and drill through it. No more chatter. Pete Oh, my other one is more of an at***ude thing that I have started since building my modified. If you catch yourself looking at a problem for more than ten minutes without starting to solve it, take out the 9" grinder and cut the offending part off. I'm a shocking procrastinator and this has helped me a lot.
I use Clekos alot, I think thats how its spelled. Its like having an extra hand when doing sheetmetal fab......Littleman....and of course cardboard is my friend...
I hope I can explain this, it works great... making an offset pattern, works well for the plasma cutter, along the same lines as Clarks hole templates being oversized to compensate for the offset of the tip of the cutter.. Say you have a curve and you want to make a pattern that is offset exactly 1/2" Make a small disc with chipboard that has a radius of 1/2" with a hole in the center. put the tip of your pencil in the center of the hole and roll the disc along the edge of the pattern, it will mark a consistant 1/2" space along the curve.
here is another one, does anyone out there use sillyputty to keep heat from traveling in a panel that is being welded? I've seen that done but never tried it.
On the template material - I use old lithographic plates, you can cut 'em with scissors, and they're stiff enough to mock stuff up with. Try your local repro house or s**** metal merchants for old ones, but avoid the ****, you'll go blind and NEVER finish anything...
How bout some safety tips - remove all jewelry, wear eye protection, no loose clothing, and have a fire extinguisher handy - These seem obvious, but it's always that one time you forget! Tip: a drop of oil when drilling saves your bit, and makes deep holes drill easier.
In the military, I learned the following: "Measure it with a recently calibrated micrometer, mark it with chalk, and cut it with an ax."
The Jalopy Journal
