i have a question about cutting sheet metal

[drogers]

If i wanted to cut as many peices as i could out of a peice of sheet metal what kind of setup would i need. the peices are about .5*.5*.125(length*width*thickness). would i need to mill a underplate for the whole peice of sheet metal or is there a better way of doing it that doesnt require a hundred pound underplate. also how would i keep my parts from washing away and haveing to search for them.

 

thanks.

[happycat64]

i would use a vacuum plate

[mxdan]

I use (tabs) then just break them out like model pieces, ya know when you were a kid building models,it works for us anyways

[mkd]

if the material is magnetic use a mag chuck.

if not waterjet or laser cut

then if you want to make hundreds of thousands, go for punch pressing.

 

all depends on quantities.......

[TERRYH]

Yea cnc does not really seem the best choice for something like this.

[RaiderX]

I use (tabs) then just break them out like model pieces, ya know when you were a kid building models,it works for us anyways

 

us too, we also use spoil board under and screw around profile to hold down. nothing precision going on with this setup but +/-.01 except for z (board gets pretty chewed).

[drogers]

thanks for all the help and we curently make them on a punch press but there is a second op that has to be machined and they constantly get sent back and i think itll be faster and easier to do the whole part on a cnc mill. and i love the tab idea thanks again everyone.

[uncle_dolan]

thanks for all the help and we curently make them on a punch press but there is a second op that has to be machined and they constantly get sent back and i think itll be faster and easier to do the whole part on a cnc mill. and i love the tab idea thanks again everyone.

 

Drogers, When you make the contouring toolpath in mastercam there is an option for leaving tabs built into the toolpath (see attached image)

[Joe788]

I don't know how much work there is on the part, but there's a good chance your total TAKT time will be shorter if you:

 

-Get .500x.1875 material cut into 8 inch strips

-Clamp them in a vise using some 8 inch Talon Grip jaws

-Cut your machined features and the contour .125 deep

-Flip that 8 inch strip over into a set of soft jaws that match the contours you just cut

-Face off the remaining material, chamfer your parts, and remove 100% complete pieces ready for the next process

 

Obviously you can scale this up or down depending on volumes, using fixture plates, mitee-bites, etc.

[drogers]

thanks dolan ive seen the tabs choice and even played around with it but never could figure it out ill play with it some more and if i cant figure it out ill just draw them onto the part.

[GoetzInd]

+1 to Joe's idea or the vacuum. I'm all for breaking off tabs and de-buring for low volumes. But if you're currently at stamping volumes, you do not want to be adding any ops.

 

Mike

[drogers]

i like your idea joe we make around 400 every time a order comes in but we dont get orders that often so i dont know if that will benefit us enough but ill keep it in mind