just placed an order for a 4x8 ft sheet of 16ga cold rolled
Why waste it on cold rolled ?
HR P&O.
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best metal for building a mill enclosure out of? insights?
- Thread starter rk9268vc
- Start date
- Replies 45
- Views 5,680
Why waste it on cold rolled ?
HR P&O.
Isnt cold rolled usually straighter? I how at least with bars the hot rolled ones are all wonky
P&O removes the scale, but cold rolled doesnt have scale right?
Huh ?
Why doo you need it so straight ? For more accurate parts ?
Grab a curbside clothes washer, and you've got 3/4 of your enclosure right there. A couple of minutes with a screwdriver, and you get the front and both sides in a nice "U" shape, make your front door with another piece.
It would be nice if it was that easy, but I need 72 inches wide for the full travels
The table plus servo sticking out is 43in wide with 24in travels
plastikdreams
Diamond
- Joined
- May 31, 2011
- Location
- upstate nj
Post pics when you get started.
Scruffy887
Titanium
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2012
- Location
- Se Ma USA
HR P&O is plenty straight and flat enough just as it is. Nothing like hot rolled bar stock. How and what you make are very dependent on fabrication methods available to you. For me the first flange on my press brake will make it straight.
good to know. Ive only got a 2ft hand bender, but we have a monster hydraulic press break at work, thing is like 6ft wide. Might have to use it after hours.
My steel supplier doesnt carry P&O in 16ga, thinnest is 14ga, so it is cheaper to stick with cold rolled 16ga
Strostkovy
Titanium
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2017
Where I'm at HRPO isn't available thinner than 12 gauge. Hot roll goes down to 16 gauge. Cold roll doesn't seem much more expensive per pound than HRPO around here though.
I had no idea that this forum was so full of hateful prick looser. I've been around a lot of miserable forums, but had to sign up to this one just to speak my mine on this.
I really don't understand what sort of a miserable human being you have to be to give these sort of responses. Even if you had said that you were going to beat a billet of aluminum into sheet metal and stitch it together with guitar string, this is just mind blowing. How boring of a person do you have to be to only do something because it makes sense or it's "worth your time" I recently bored out holes on a cast cylinder head on a manual mill and made my own replacement domes on a manual lathe after making an inside radius tool.... It took me almost two weeks and I could have purchased a new billet CNC head for $5 - 600..
There's got to be more to it.... This sort of person must be trying to convince themselves of something. Other than harassing people on the internet, I've gotta wonder what these losers do for fun.
I'm curious what you ended up doing. I think it's way overkill to use aluminum and weld it (fully weld it out). I've done much more senseless things for sure, but I'll be using steel, probably rivet the seams, seal and paint it. Maybe 3 stage candy apple red. Just kidding, but I do have some left over lime green epoxy paint.
mhajicek
Diamond
- Joined
- May 11, 2017
- Location
- Maple Grove, MN, USA
This forum is expressly for the discussion of professional machining solutions. It even says so in the rules, if you'd take the time to read them. There are other forums for hobby machinists. The real professional solution is to throw that thing away and buy a real machine. But as I first said, if you must use that machine, the professional solution is to BUY the enclosure that's made for it. A professional's time is worth way more than the time it would take to build an enclosure. If you want an answer for hobbyists, look elsewhere.
" I see your true colors, shining through, I see your true colors" and they expose you and others for just being nasty people. The fact that you have the right to be a prick, doesn't mean that you should be a prick. I stand by what I said.... You have to be some sort of miserable person to have these responses... I can eat chilly for a week and then go stand in line at the bank on Friday, shit myself and make it really unpleasant for everyone there... but I don't do that because I'm a decent human being. Next time I smell shit at the bank, I'll know it was someone from PM in the line.
Cheers.
sfriedberg
Diamond
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2010
- Location
- Oregon, USA
I would rather have the butt-hurt entitled newbies than the die-hard political flamers, but I'm not keen on the butt-hurt entitled newbies, either.
Good bye, Get-Bent. Don't let us slow down your departure for politer pastures.
Good bye, Get-Bent. Don't let us slow down your departure for politer pastures.
I'm confused by this comment. I'm not sure who the political flamers are... or am I just being compared to them ?
I also don't feel entitled to anything. I didn't ask for anything, I didn't demand anything. I simply pointed out that you have to be a miserable, boring person to attack others for simply asking a question that you think is below your precious forum standards, or because they are asking a question about an item that you believe is below the standards.
I do not feel entitled to your kindness, and I don't' feel that others are entitled to your kindliness either.... but there is a big difference between switching lanes to avoid splashing a homeless person, and switching lanes to splash a homeless person. The people who I was referring to in my comments are going out of their way to be nasty to another human being. Make up whatever excuses you wish, evoke any rules, laws or subsections you please... but if you choose to go out of your way and make an effort to be nasty to other people, you're a prick.
plastikdreams
Diamond
- Joined
- May 31, 2011
- Location
- upstate nj
Sometimes it's just the way threads go here...believe it or not it's gotten better, this thread is pretty tame.
Ries
Diamond
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2004
- Location
- Edison Washington USA
I dont care what kind of mill you have. My gripe is when somebody says they want "the best", then lays down a paragraph of qualifications, which ends up meaning they want "the cheapest".
The best for no money is to find some of those campaign signs made from that corrugated plastic, and silver tape em together. It will work just fine, and cost almost nothing.
Me, I have done that, and built enclosures from plywood, plexiglas, aluminum, galvanized steel, powdercoated steel, stainless, and more.
My idea of "the best" is definitely stainless- because it will last the longest, wont rust, and paint wont peel. But its pricey. Me, I have a plasma table, rolls and a brake, so fabbing from stainless is easy for me.
That said, I have done a lot of stuff like this in sheet steel, but I learned long ago to bite the bullet and pay for powdercoating, and, even then, accept that we are talking about maybe a 10 year lifespan, less if corrosives are involved.
The best for no money is to find some of those campaign signs made from that corrugated plastic, and silver tape em together. It will work just fine, and cost almost nothing.
Me, I have done that, and built enclosures from plywood, plexiglas, aluminum, galvanized steel, powdercoated steel, stainless, and more.
My idea of "the best" is definitely stainless- because it will last the longest, wont rust, and paint wont peel. But its pricey. Me, I have a plasma table, rolls and a brake, so fabbing from stainless is easy for me.
That said, I have done a lot of stuff like this in sheet steel, but I learned long ago to bite the bullet and pay for powdercoating, and, even then, accept that we are talking about maybe a 10 year lifespan, less if corrosives are involved.
My first thoughts were that perhaps these were just bots... but some of the insults were too cleaver. In the grand scheme of things, I guess what was said in these posts is better than yelling at the person at the take out window or beating your wife when you get home... We will never know what therapeutic benefits we offer to those angry people. Free of charge.... like an internet punching bag
. Anyway, cheers... thanks for a reasonable comment.
EmGo
Diamond
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2018
Going to demur here (petty sure that's a word); if it's just to look pretty that's fine but for a metalcutting machine that gets used, even powdercoat doesn't cut the moutarde, especially in steel. Been there, done that.
Finally came to the conclusion you're better off going to Ace Hardware and buying Rustoleum Dove Grey (or any other big name standard color that will be available in five years) and use that. Every once in a while, when you get sick of looking at the funky machine, hit it with acetone, a bit of sandpaper, and some rattlecan. It's not a showcar, points will not be deducted. For a machine it looks plenty good and easier to keep up than any hi-falutin treatment.
I've done it both ways. I prefer dropping off nasty crusty panels and picking up nice powdercoated ones. The PC has held up great for me. The rattle can rustoleum looked like shit in a few years on a vmc. Powdercoat still looked new in 5 years.
If I don't have time to tear down and Powdercoat the Rustoleum for the win, but the PC is Wirth it if I do.
Ries
Diamond
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2004
- Location
- Edison Washington USA
I am quite aware of the limitations of powdercoat- I have probably sent a couple of powdercoaters kids thru college, over the years, with the amount of small product I have had powdercoated, certainly thousands and thousands of pieces. I would never guarantee it for exterior use (and in my business, it was very common for me to have to sign contracts putting me on the hook for a 1 year warranty on big, expensive, exterior metalwork).
but for sheet metal, properly prepped, it will outlast rustoleum.
I have gone thru a fair amount of gallons of that, too, in my day.
The advantage to wet paint is you can touch it up.
The disadvantage to wet paint is you have to touch it up.
I have actually had pretty good luck with using commercial paint shops that do sandblast, 2 part epoxy primer, and then 2 coats of 2 part epoxy topcoat on sheet metal, each coat using paints in the 200 dollar a gallon and up range.
You gets what you pay for.
If all you are doing is one small hobby machine, and your time is worth nothing, then sure, buy a quart and a chip brush. (tractor supply is the cheapest place to get quarts of rustoleum, as long as you like black, silver, red, green or yellow. And the green and yellow are both brand name of ag machinery colors.)
but for sheet metal, properly prepped, it will outlast rustoleum.
I have gone thru a fair amount of gallons of that, too, in my day.
The advantage to wet paint is you can touch it up.
The disadvantage to wet paint is you have to touch it up.
I have actually had pretty good luck with using commercial paint shops that do sandblast, 2 part epoxy primer, and then 2 coats of 2 part epoxy topcoat on sheet metal, each coat using paints in the 200 dollar a gallon and up range.
You gets what you pay for.
If all you are doing is one small hobby machine, and your time is worth nothing, then sure, buy a quart and a chip brush. (tractor supply is the cheapest place to get quarts of rustoleum, as long as you like black, silver, red, green or yellow. And the green and yellow are both brand name of ag machinery colors.)
EmGo
Diamond
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2018
See, this absolutely does not work if you cut steel and have a little oomph in the spindle. I've used everything on internal sheet metal - polane, epoxy, powdercoat - and none of it holds up, the way I run them inserts.
Possibly in a hardinge or bostomatic it'd be fine but not on a cinturn or an eagle or a panther or a k&t.
Much easier for me to just hit the sheet metal quickly once in a while with rattlecan. Looks just as good, easier to touch up, overall faster. I even quit trying to use bondo and all that to make the outside look beeyootiful. 85% is good enough, it's a machine.
That discovery saved me literally hundreds of hours. Also actually made the shop look nicer overall, cuz a half hour here and there is a lot easier to find than yet another major project.
