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Hi everyone,
I’m working on a project that involves fabricating some custom sheet metal parts, and I have a few questions.
I’m trying to decide on the best material and thickness for durability without adding unnecessary weight.
Does anyone have recommendations on aluminum vs. steel for a balance of strength and ease of fabrication?
Also, what are your go-to tips for achieving clean bends and minimizing distortion during the process?
I’m open to hearing about tools, techniques, or any lessons you’ve learned from experience.
Hi everyone,
I’m working on a project that involves fabricating some custom sheet metal parts, and I have a few questions.
I’m trying to decide on the best material and thickness for durability without adding unnecessary weight.
Does anyone have recommendations on aluminum vs. steel for a balance of strength and ease of fabrication?
Also, what are your go-to tips for achieving clean bends and minimizing distortion during the process?
I’m open to hearing about tools Sheet Metal Parts, techniques, or any lessons you’ve learned from experience.
Looking forward to your advice and insights—thanks in advance!
I’m trying to decide on the best material and thickness for durability without adding unnecessary weight.
Hello,
Depends on what you are making i guess.
It would probably help if people had a better idea of what you want to make.
Bends in ally 'can' be a problem.
Structural or an artistic sort of thing ?
Stu
Or consider subbing it out to the pros. I had a company in NH do some stainless work for me. One 4x8 sheet worth of parts. They cut it up with laser including gobs of different sized holes. They have zillion dollar CNC forming machines. I also had them weld the seams which were a work of art. I could not even buy one pathetic sheet metal hobby machine for what they charged me shipped to my door. I was never that impressed with someone else's work WOW!
This is % beyond my skill level. Those corners are TIG welded, they look cast they are that good.
As mentioned above, it depends on your projects. There are YouTube videos of guys hand-forming replacement auto fenders with contours. Also, videos of guys making simple rectangular folded-up boxes. Both projects involve sheet metal, but the tooling needed is different.
I do simple stuff and have a Tennsmith 37" squaring shear, DiAcro 24" finger brake, Roper Whitney #218 4-ton punch press, generic 6x6 corner notcher, 8" bench shear, Harbor Freight bead roller, 5 or 6 RW No. 5 hand punches, spot welder, TIG welder, 2x42 belt sander, and a bunch of other hand tools.
I work mainly in steel from 0.016" - 0.062". Material strength varies depending on the alloy, though a rule of thumb is that steel is roughly triple the strength of aluminum assuming equal geometries. Steel is triple the stiffness of aluminum if you are worried about deflecting; i.e. pushing down on a cantilevered piece of aluminum will deflect 3x more than the same dimensions in steel.
Budget can also be a factor. A new DiAcro 24" finger brake is $ (direct price from DiAcro). There are MANY cheaper options for bending sheet metal. The trade-off can be taking more time to do the task than spending the money.
Some sketches of what you want to make would help.
Hi @jonano
As other have said the choice of material depends on the project; weight and strength required, rust resistance, etc.
One thing to help guide you though is how you will make any required joints; solder, rivet, bolt, weld, etc.
MIG can do fairly thin steel; tack first, copper backer, leave gaps,
I have tried my MIG with spool gun on aluminum, but anything thinner than ~1/4" did not work.
With TIG thin steel and aluminum is possible..... with lots of practice!
Brian