[ttldomination]

So, it seems like a lot of people are telling you to how to cut out pieces of metal, but as far as I'm concerned, that's not even your biggest worry. In my opinion, it's a lot more difficult to get the hole placement right than cutting a decent looking gusset.

For the shape of the sheet metal, use a bandsaw + sander. It'll let you make a large variety of shapes and be an all around good tool for the shop. Just measure twice, go slow, and you'll make some decent looking gussets.

For hole drilling, you can either use a drill press or clamp pieces together and drill through all of the pieces, creating a "perfectly aligned hole." Either method will require some patience and time to do cleanly and precisely.

Whenever we have gusseting needs that need to be met in house, we often just end up printing out a 1x1 scale model on paper and then gluing it to some aluminum. Then the kids/mentors go through and use the marked hols and lines to create the pieces. It isn't super pretty but the job got done.

- Sunny G.