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Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Kwik Fab's Small Shop

Workspaces sized between 265 and 485 squarefeet.
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KwikFab

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Jul 27, 2024
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Location
Central Valley, CA
I hope he likes it...

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I'm about to get the flanges bent in a second, but looking at it as is, I think this would look much better as a "layered" sign.

Once I reveal to my friend what I made, I'll suggest to him to glue up a colored background, or mount some 16 gauge steel painted a different color.

It'll add both depth, as well as rigidity.
 
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KwikFab

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Location
Central Valley, CA
Bender on the bender is priceless! Really cool assortment of projects!

New to fusion how well does the canvas feature work?

How can I put this -

Canvas is probably the slowest process for what I did. This is because many other CAD applications can create an SVG which can be imported into Fusion for immediate use.

Attaching a canvas is just that, a canvas. You still have to draw the item itself and Fusion isn't the best at artistic stuff.

It does come in handy when someone needs a part and they get a template scanned on a flatbed scanner. From there I take that picture and attach it as a canvas, followed by scaling it to a known dimension on the item itself.

This allows me to create as accurate of a copy as possible. Camera phones have a sort of fish eye effect which is why I tell people to not take a picture of the actual part for accuracy reasons.

But, I suffer from memory loss and I can't push myself to learn another CAD program with as often as I use my current one.
 

Blackbyrd

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Nov 28, 2020
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Location
TN
I was working on a bezel insert (lots of arcs) and it was recommended to use canvas to draw the shape based on the image. But im like 90% close to final shape so it may not be worth it at this point.
 
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KwikFab

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Location
Central Valley, CA
I was working on a bezel insert (lots of arcs) and it was recommended to use canvas to draw the shape based on the image. But im like 90% close to final shape so it may not be worth it at this point.

For anything that isn't a standard radius or something, I'll definitely use the canvas feature.

Unless the item requested doesn't have to conform to any particular space, etc.

Then I'll just do something clean myself while keeping close to the actual part size.
 

Blackbyrd

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Nov 28, 2020
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I may give it a try, its a guage cluster bezel that drops into an existing structure but its got multiple arcs that contact exterior wall of what it sets in.

Thanks.
 
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KwikFab

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Location
Central Valley, CA
Them - I have an item, if you can cut it out and bend it.

Me - Sure, send the DXF!

(moments later after trying to decipher things)

Me - Can I see how this whole thing goes together? Maybe some tolerances, etc?

Them -

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Picture definitely helped, as I wasn't sure whether an item was bent one way or another.

Although, here's the DXF (screenshot) of the provided "design". It's the cardboard piece in the picture above by the way.

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What I didn't add is that this is my business partner so I'm allowed to give him **** :ROFLMAO:

I mean, look what I sent him when he finally made the "cardboard" mock up

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Some basic modeling told me his DXF was way off and I'd have to redo most of it.

Here's my sketch.

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The 3D model.

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And the zig zag part I was keeping within a specific tolerance he later provided.

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What I'm saying is, I'm glad this is the sort of stuff that comes to me almost daily as it really keeps my skills sharpened while not getting complacent and still taking the time to do a test cut and bend.

What's funny though is he absolutely hates anything CAD-related, and while I've always got his back, I've been really trying to encourage him to do the whole thing since he also runs a CNC table.

And for anyone wondering, I will be hitting the tiny flange twice in order to achieve something closer to 85 degrees or so. This is so that the very end acts like a good catch for the latch that goes over it.

Ideally I would run the flange on something like this to achieve a sharper bend.

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But I'm not going to invest in such tooling for 5 or so parts total unless he wants to order it for me.
 
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KwikFab

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Location
Central Valley, CA
Cut tons of parts out today, but I'll share last night's bracket.

The first bend that needs to be done is the very tip of the catch here. You can see that after it's bent, it more or less tells me how much clearance I need from the die before the second bend.

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Anyway I had all that calculated so onto the next bends.

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Leaving the larger flange for last. This is because if I had done it first, it would interfere with the punch holder doing the bend at the tip of the catch.

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******* mint.

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KwikFab

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Location
Central Valley, CA
Here's another item I originally designed, then redid much of, because he immediately grew tired of welding on some little tabs.

This is the center divider of the dual fuel carrier.

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The original had "slots" where the tabs are, so my business partner can weld on some small mounting tabs. They get welded on as they allow the panel to be bolted in and removed.

This was per his request and I made all the holes and tabs line up perfectly for all the panels that bolt together.

That wasn't exactly easy to get first try lol

Anyway, he recently asked if I can implement some tabs which meant redoing the holes and spacing for everything including - the back panel, the bottom panel, the center divider, and the small front panel.

Had to snap all these pics because he swears everything I do is easy just because I get it all done quickly :ROFLMAO: 😭

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Finally. All that for just a center divider.

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KwikFab

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Joined
Jul 27, 2024
Messages
1,307
Location
Central Valley, CA
Went better than expected; he has no siblings and his only real friends (or better yet, his future wife) only sees him a few times a year so we were worried he was going to be a lot more selfish than he was today.

His future wife (my daughter in law to be) 2 years ago -

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The two of them just last month -

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