Saturday, September 09, 2006

Sheet Metal Bending - 6 hours (348 Total)

Today I started bending the sheet metal for the enclosure. I started off by bending the toughest pan first. This pan requires a complex bend since the rear is bent around a 3" diameter object while the front two curves are bent around a 2" diameter objects. In any case this wasn't easy and took many attempts.

The second piece wasn't much easier but I found that using Rans' suggest 5" bend wasn't accurate. I had pretty good luck measuring the distance between the edge of the pans and where the curves needed to start and marking them on the unbent sheet metal. I then measured the distance around the curve needed and marked that on the sheet metal as well. I did this for both the front and back edges of the rest of the pans and then bent accordingly.

Below are a few pictures of the process.