Yesterdays progress.... Apprentice E got the bus bumper end caps removed by drilling out the rivets, and then media blasted the caps so they will be ready for paint...
We needed some tooling for the next phase of the 55 wagon's interior fabrications, the radius we installed on the rear seat back framework will need to be duplicated onto the sheet metal covering. A trip to Hill Top welding had produced a suitable piece of 4" pipe. The Pexto shear has a t-slot along the front for it's support arms and we'll use this to bolt on a couple angle brackets to support this pipe along the front. A slight gap behind the pipe will allow us to use it as a fulcrum in adding a radius to our panel... Mike worked on adding some end caps to our radius die....
Need a ground clamp for a standing piece of pipe? set it on a flanged piece of sheet metal, instant clamp location....
More to come on that....
Meanwhile, our sheet metal panel will also serve to cover the rear bass speaker. Not wanting a grille showing, we plan on using upholstery cloth to conceal the speaker. Rather than a big gaping hole that would more readily show the location regardless, some slots will better support the upholstery cloth. So lets make some nibbling tooling..
This punch will be approx. 3/8 diameter and is made of 4140 oil hardening stock so we can heat treat when complete for better tool life..
End is formed slightly concave to give a better cutting edge..
Bottom die gets a clearance hole for the 3/8 punch, then it gets bored from the bottom end using 1/2" bit to within about 1/8" of the top surface. This will allow better gravity flow of any chips passing through our bottom die..
Then we'll need an exit chute, so a 1/2" angled hole is drilled through the side and a 1/2" plug made to fill the remainder...
The plug bottom gets chamfered and welded into the bottom die, then a ball end die grinder is used to fine tune the exit chute...
A "shoe" is formed to hold down the workpiece, as otherwise the punch tends to lock onto the panel after the first punch and raise it in the air, thus preventing any material feed...
An action video....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzh1...ature=youtu.be
Our test slot.... this may work yet!
