Best way to make gussets?

[Nebster]

Originally Posted by Gdeaver

We have been cutting .125 Al 6061T6 on the X-Carve. It does take some dialing in to cut AL. We need to do some mods to be able to cut faster or with more precision. For gussets it's fine. For real precision we need to go to true cam software. Something to master after the season.

Good to know. My team recently won a grant for the 1000x1000 x-carve, it just came in and we haven't assembled it yet. Did you upgrade the router that came with it? Our main shop mentor seems to think it will not cut aluminum well enough even for gussets and things.

[jwfoss]

In a pinch I will work with the students to print a part 1:1 scale and use it as a direct template. Tape it to the part, use a punch to mark the holes and then head to the drill press and bandsaw.

[roystur44]

Mcmaster Carr has a nice set of inexpensive brackets you can buy that can work out for you.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#framing-bra...ctors/=112dxpw


A tool that is a great thing to have is a cleco tool. It's a temporary hole clamp used to align parts when we match drill.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#=112dz4u

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by roystur44

A tool that is a great thing to have is a cleco tool. It's a temporay hole clamp used to align parts when we match drill.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#=112dz4u

+1 to Cleco Tools! We have three Cleco Pliers and hundreds of Clecos. Everything we assemble gets cleco-ed before being riveted together.

-Mike

[asid61]

Thanks for the ideas! We have a sheet metal sponsor, but they do not like to do things other than 90* angles for the sides of gussets, so I was hoping there was a quick way to make them by hand. They also only do 1-2 big orders for us each season as it's faster for them to do that than a bunch of orders for 4-8 gussets each.

Normaly we do what Mrnoble said (print, drill, cut) but the paper peels sometimes, and it tends to be rather slow if we need to make 16 or 30 gussets.

[jijiglobe]

In the case of many gussets, you just need to make sure the holes line up. you can actually accomplish this by clamping the two parts you want to attach together, throwing them on a drill press, and going through. By doing this you can attach two pieces without spending basically any time lining up holes.

[OccamzRazor]

If you have no waterjet or laser access we have used this engraving tool to trace the edges of the part from a drawing to transfer it to the surface of the metal:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Dremel-12...0-01/100394725

It works well if you place a drawing onto the metal sheet and trace around it or make a straightedge with a piece of scrap. Takes a minute or so to trace the outline and it is usually accurate enough to make one to scale properly. We learned our lesson last year and match drill everything that is not the proper gusset from VexPro. We line up one hole, stick a rivet in with the gun, and then drill the rest of the pattern.

[Michael 4499]

Team 4499 has recently acquired a 1995 Haas VF2 and what we are doing to make gussets is first cut out stock that is big enough to fit two gussets on it as two L's. Then we chuck it up in the mill and run a holes sequence to get the hole pattern in it to then mount it to a plate tapped with those holes. After that, we bolt each side down and then it runs a sequence that cuts the perimeter of the gussets. The whole 8 gussets are done in under an hour and we are ready to assemble.

[Michael Hill]

We use a sheet metal shear to cut triangles. Clamp, drill, cleco, rivet.

[asid61]

Well we just made a bunch of gussets today. This time went a bit faster than last time.
Essentially we set up the table saw with a metal-cutting blade, cut the gussets as squares, then just clamped them together and stuck them on the mill to do the holes. Took us about 2 hours total including setup to do 16 large gussets with 3 people (although it really only takes 2). I think we'll stick with this method for now, and switch to printing and cutting manually if there's a problem. It scales up in quantity really nicely.

[sanddrag]

Fastest manual method? Foot-actuated shear.
Fastest automated method? CNC plasma cut.
Best method? Waterjet.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Michael 4499

Team 4499 has recently acquired a 1995 Haas VF2 and what we are doing to make gussets is first cut out stock that is big enough to fit two gussets on it as two L's. Then we chuck it up in the mill and run a holes sequence to get the hole pattern in it to then mount it to a plate tapped with those holes. After that, we bolt each side down and then it runs a sequence that cuts the perimeter of the gussets. The whole 8 gussets are done in under an hour and we are ready to assemble.

You should investigate using tabs to make your gussets. It will save a lot of time. Essentially you contour almost the entire perimeter of the part, but you leave a tab or two connected on each side that is ~.020-.035" thick and as wide as necessary (usually .25"-.5"). If the part is thick enough you can hammer it out from the remaining stock, otherwise you bandsaw it loose. From there you can snap the tabs off with a pair of pliers - this gets it pretty close to flush. Then you sand it as flush as you can without gouging the part (120 grit 1" wide sanding belts work well). Finally you finish it off with some scotchbrite. Once you get good at this it will be virtually indistinguishable from a fully machined surface. See an example here

[Michael 4499]

Originally Posted by Cory

You should investigate using tabs to make your gussets. It will save a lot of time. Essentially you contour almost the entire perimeter of the part, but you leave a tab or two connected on each side that is ~.020-.035" thick and as wide as necessary (usually .25"-.5"). If the part is thick enough you can hammer it out from the remaining stock, otherwise you bandsaw it loose. From there you can snap the tabs off with a pair of pliers - this gets it pretty close to flush. Then you sand it as flush as you can without gouging the part (120 grit 1" wide sanding belts work well). Finally you finish it off with some scotchbrite. Once you get good at this it will be virtually indistinguishable from a fully machined surface. See an example here

Ok, thanks for the great idea, hopefully we will utilize it in the future.

[JackFisher]

If your ever in a pinch to make em quickly, (let's say at a regional and you have to completely change can grabber geometry via new gussets designed at the event) you can cut out a profile that lines up with the edge of the tube, use tube without holes already in it, fixture the assembly together with clamps and then drill and rivet one hole at a time along the entire gusset. This isn't very efficient and should only be done in a pinch, but it is easy because you don't have to worry about the holes being precisely located. The key part though is to drill a hole and then rivet, because the plate can easily shift during drilling and then the holes wouldn't be aligned.

[hectorcastillo]

What we do is make the gusset (or whatever flat part we need made) in Solidworks, make a drawing file out of the part on an 8.5in x 11in sheet, print it out on paper, and glue it onto our material (usually lexan or aluminum) with spray adhesive. Then we go to the band saw, drill press, and belt sander and in a few minutes we have our finished piece. If you could cut along the lines with scissors in kindergarten, you can do this easily. We usually use acetone or Goo-Gone to get the paper off of metal parts when we're done.

Here's a Google Doc that I made a while ago describing this process in further detail. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

This has worked for us really well. Pretty much all of our custom gussets and plates that don't require crazy precision are made this way. We don't own any fancy CNCs because we spend all of our money replacing our cheap Harbor Freight machines every other year lol.