Anything Manufacturing - Small to Medium Scale Metal Work (CAD/CAM included!)

With all the deviations created in the Anything Welding thread (I'm pretty guilty of it myself) thought we could all share our CNC milling, CNC plasma, lathe work, and more in this thread here!

More for the at-home type or at least really small production scale.

Whether it's bending on a Swag Off Road press brake, cutting on a DIY CNC plasma table, and more, feel free to share your tools and cool stuff made here!

Maybe this will bring out the much more knowledgeable group found in this forum.

 

Don't forget CAD/CAM 3D modeling tips and tricks 3d printing and lasers can not forget lasers.

an as a bit shameless of self promotion a link to my build thread where I am building a CNC plasma cutter along with an air scribe attachment. #builtnotbought

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cnc-plasma-table-build.746103/

 

Added!

And no way dude your thread is badass.

I just don't have the time or patience to build one, props to you cause that takes a lot of work.

 

Maybe @Zebinator can post all the cool shit about his new CNC press brake

 

@zippsub9 as well with his XR.

@TacoTuesday603 got this thread started for that 3/8" stuff you'll be bending soon.

I don't have any production going on so maybe I'll just throw some old stuff on here I've used/done from home.

 

maybe he needs to be tagged more @Zebinator and @six5crèéd you need to be here too the model farm implements you have made are awesome

 

Come to think of it, this place now serves as a means of posting about my CNC table fiasco

How she sits now



The old and new (broken) parts



Once the CNC table is up and running, I'll need to figure a way for securing my pedel for operating my press brake



The thought of relocating the press brake has occurred now that I've acquired these nice shoulder bolts meant for mounting large tools to a fixture table



Moving the brake to a smaller DIY fixture means a larger work area on my table (redeemed space).

 

Here’s most of it


https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-miniature-stuff-thread.793022/

 

You can feel it by hand; being as hard as tungsten is, you'll have no problem scribing into aluminum, steel, or even stainless.

You won't feel it catch on your punch though, at least I couldn't and I run a 30 degree punch with 1/16" radius. I just manually inch it lower and lower until both the left and right edges are lined up with my punch before going full send.

And I don't run my scribe mark the entire length of the bend. Just a small 1" mark on the left edge and a 1" mark on the right edge.

 

love this - maybe I'll close down anything machining and suggest the posts go here... ?

@Kwikvette the height gage is awesome with the little micro granite surface. The granite is toy sized but it works. I am getting too old to read the vernier scale though. I wish I had a digital unit!

More interesting stuff with the Titan Press Brake... I was getting a big overbend out of the box. Easy to true up but shouldn't be happening. I measured everything. I checked the ram to table height. Given this was set before it went on a stand, was shipped etc, I would have expected it to be whacked, but it was +/- 0.002 from level (as long as you stayed away from the last couple inches of the ram!) and dead on the height. +1 Langmuir. However, the ram was mangled on the left side, so no short punches can go out there... -1 Langmuir. I tried recalibrating the ram height, and suddenly the height was .050" off. Found a missing step in the calibration instructions. -1 Langmuir. Verified the punch height. Within the limits of my measuring ability. +1 Langmuir. Verified the die height. Also dead nuts on. +1 L. Measured the die height on the die holder on the table, .005 over spec. ehhhh call that a draw. +0 Langmuir. Now that I have all the good numbers put in the punch is still going .003-.005 low. I look at the punch clamped in the ram and the punch is not seated! I try to get it to seat but can't, and finally notice the clamp plate is taller than the space in which it goes, making the punch ride about .005 off the ram! -1 Langmuir.

Final score in this round, 0 points to Langmuir. I'm sure they'll fix it, their customer support has been awesome, but man, lots of issues! Some stuff Langmuir does really well. Other stuff... mehhhh.

image is the punch on the left fully seated, the one on the right held off by the clamp plate. I have been thinking I'd rather have 1" wide clamps to match the width of the tooling, so maybe that will be my first titan upgrade.

 

When you were describing numbers, I was like eh...it could work.

But that seating is just unacceptable holy shit.

Everything should seat in place as if it was one solid piece.

 

@Zebinator

Regarding your height gauge tool, I'd want one with a dial on it but the setup you have would also work well for me. I love that granite flat piece though. I don't own one due to lack of space but my table is flat enough. That's great to have though for checking parts.

If a part just needs be within a few tenths, I'll grab the cheap Husky. It's reliable and works well.



If I need to be precise, which I needed to be on a few small parts about a month ago, I use my Etalon caliper.

 

@TacoTuesday603

As a demonstration.

I lock my combination square for the distance needed, this way I can do repeats which I think you mentioned doing.



The lines. Of course the piece would be a lot wider but I don't have larger scrap pieces to showcase with.



I don't recall if you have air over hydraulic or not. I've always ran with air on both this press brake and my swag setup.



I run it down on air before going manual for alignment reasons.

Hard to tell but I'll bring it down lower until both sides are even and the punch sits on my scribe mark.



Then just send it on air with one of my angle finders on my work piece.

 

@Zebinator

Was it you that told me you weren't impressed by the quality of the tooling?

It uses American tooling right?

 

No - not me. I think the tooling is insanely good for the price. I have never held a Wilson in my hands, which I bet are sexy. I'm guessing Langmuir is comparable to the Turkish company you found, but at like 1/4 price. Here's their "1/4" package":

 

Yeah, I loved their pricing when I saw it in their PDF.

Know what's even nicer? Once they fulfill their order bank and have surplus tooling on hand, they'll make them available to the general public whether you own a Titan or not.

I just thought someone told me their tooling didn't feel like it was that of industrial tooling but eh, good enough for me.

Wilson punches are crazy nice and heavy, and it's what the shop near me uses on their 200+ton brake.

 

@Zebinator

Shit forgot to ask, how much extra height does the Titan give you if you have a punch and die set in place?

Not because I'll own one but for the sake of curiosity.

In the industry you'll often see different holders and adapters used to give you the added clearance needed on a part with multiple bends. Wondering if there's room to allow that on the Titan (although maybe not to this extreme).



Saves from having to invest in separate punches.

 

There is not a lot of room... The table to ram is just over 8". I'm running the X die on a die holder and the 30° acute punch which is about as tall as it gets, I think. The punch is 4.059" and the die and die holder is 2.6... (I think). I'll stick some other tooling on there and see how it lines up... But I don't think this is a tool where you're going to have a bunch of different punch and die combos set up at the same time.

 

Makes sense.

Still a ton of tooling options, CNC programmed, back gauge and more, it'd be a lot to ask for if it was tall enough to utilize such adapters.

Maybe something to consider when I finally make my own.

That bottom block I think is 2 3/8" which is a really common size.

 

whatcha waiting for.. get to building it not like your busy or anything your retired