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I occasionally want to make something out of sheet metal. Usually it's something pretty small for my shop. I have owned two box and pan brakes, two corner notchers, and two slip rolls in the past but don't own any of those right now. I just don't have room to stay tooled up for sheet metal. I know this isn't a novel concept but I thought it might be of general interest to a lot of guys here, particularly guys like me with home small shops who aren't professional metalworkers.
The project I just completed is for our overland vehicle. It's a van with a bed in the back built up so it has 24" below for storage. I decided to buy 3 industrial stacking bins to keep my clothes and other stuff in. We did our first big trip this last winter, and it proved to be a PITA to get stuff out of the lower bins. So I decided to build a little set of shelves just to put my 3 bins on, so I can get at any of them without having to move the others.
I had some sheet metal on hand, so that is what I designed it to be made out of. Most of it is 15 gauge but the back panel is 16 gauge. It was scrounged from an old Linde welder. It happened to have a door in it, but I don't care so I just removed the door and left a hole in the back.
I made all my cuts using a lowly angle grinder with cutoff disk. To make straight cuts, I clamped a 3/8" bar to the sheet metal and used it as a fence to guide the cutoff wheel. It's loud, mesay and very slow compared to having a shear, but I don't have one so this is what I did. Before I made the final cut on each piece I carefully checked it corner to corner and if it didn't match closely I found the out-of-square edge and clamped the bar to it so just the little extra offending bit stuck out, and sanded down to the bar with a flap wheel.
To make all the bends, I again used a bar as a fence, and used it to score the bend line. Then I cut right through in several spots, leaving just a few tabs connecting the part to be bent. With most of the metal gone from the bend area and the rest scored, it was easy to grab the edge with two adjustable wrenches and do the bends by hand. I fine tuned the bend angle with a hammer and then put solid tack welds in the center of each cut along the bend line. I could have welded it up solid, but I don't think it's going to be needed so I just went with heavy tack welds.
I was able to make nice square panels with neat folded tabs bent up for riveting to the other panels.
My wife came along partway through and told me to build it without the bottom. She is worried the shelf unit will slide around. So I left it off but may add it in the future. That's why I didn't paint the shelf.
I fastened all six panels together with 1/8" pop rivets with closing range 1/8-3/16". I drilled all the holes with a 1/8" drill bit in an air drill, and used 1/8" Cleco clamps. After fastening a pop rivet, I like to go to the back side and hammer the rivet flatter. It makes it look much neater and I believe rivets with their back side flattened will hold better.
Enough yacking. Let's see!
The project I just completed is for our overland vehicle. It's a van with a bed in the back built up so it has 24" below for storage. I decided to buy 3 industrial stacking bins to keep my clothes and other stuff in. We did our first big trip this last winter, and it proved to be a PITA to get stuff out of the lower bins. So I decided to build a little set of shelves just to put my 3 bins on, so I can get at any of them without having to move the others.
I had some sheet metal on hand, so that is what I designed it to be made out of. Most of it is 15 gauge but the back panel is 16 gauge. It was scrounged from an old Linde welder. It happened to have a door in it, but I don't care so I just removed the door and left a hole in the back.
I made all my cuts using a lowly angle grinder with cutoff disk. To make straight cuts, I clamped a 3/8" bar to the sheet metal and used it as a fence to guide the cutoff wheel. It's loud, mesay and very slow compared to having a shear, but I don't have one so this is what I did. Before I made the final cut on each piece I carefully checked it corner to corner and if it didn't match closely I found the out-of-square edge and clamped the bar to it so just the little extra offending bit stuck out, and sanded down to the bar with a flap wheel.
To make all the bends, I again used a bar as a fence, and used it to score the bend line. Then I cut right through in several spots, leaving just a few tabs connecting the part to be bent. With most of the metal gone from the bend area and the rest scored, it was easy to grab the edge with two adjustable wrenches and do the bends by hand. I fine tuned the bend angle with a hammer and then put solid tack welds in the center of each cut along the bend line. I could have welded it up solid, but I don't think it's going to be needed so I just went with heavy tack welds.
I was able to make nice square panels with neat folded tabs bent up for riveting to the other panels.
My wife came along partway through and told me to build it without the bottom. She is worried the shelf unit will slide around. So I left it off but may add it in the future. That's why I didn't paint the shelf.
I fastened all six panels together with 1/8" pop rivets with closing range 1/8-3/16". I drilled all the holes with a 1/8" drill bit in an air drill, and used 1/8" Cleco clamps. After fastening a pop rivet, I like to go to the back side and hammer the rivet flatter. It makes it look much neater and I believe rivets with their back side flattened will hold better.
Enough yacking. Let's see!
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