V - carving anyone?

[NASTYZEN]

Had a customer ask me if I could V-carve Stainless sheet prior to bending.
The architects love this method which gives a sharp corner finish. I had no idea this was even a thing... Neither did anyone of my network of shops I farm out to or there friends..

Googled this pretty cool vid. about it. Learn new things all the time.

Anyone know of someone who does this in the great white north? I called a big cnc distributor place to inquire about a machine. Thinking he could refer me to a shop that has one. He never even heard of one of these ether. I got him to google it and the first thing he said was. Oh yeah? they can do that?....Said he would make some calls and get back to me.

 

[bimmer1980]

I have seen a similar method applied to sign board on a cnc router. In this case the sign board is usually a composite of aluminum sheet, plastic core and then aluminum sheet. The CNC router uses a V-bit and carves thru the first layer of aluminum sheet and the plastic core. Then the outer layer of aluminum is used to form the bend.

Definitely not a structural application, but for decoration (signage) or architectural, it works......

 

[ilovevocs]

When we work with prefinished .050 and .063 we experience some slight crazing at the bends due to the material thickens / bend radius.

We use a router on ACM panels to v groove the folds.

Grooving the aluminum to make a bend is a totally new to me.

Nasty, can I ask what the application is?

I don't do allot of interior work, most of my fabrications are exterior; roofing, coping, gutters, downs, siding, ACM, ect.

The stress riser created in the material would be a concern for most of my fabrications.

Personally I don't like aluminum for the bulk of my work because of its high coefficient of expansion and contraction. Simply put, 22 or 24 gauge steel is much simpler to work with and detail than .032 - .050 ally.

Most people think that aluminum has better long term performance because it cannot rust but kynar coated galvalume steel will last longer and perform better in 90% of the work that I perform.

 

[NASTYZEN]

Nasty, can I ask what the application is?

Architectural artsy stuff.

 

[Iron-Iceberg]

Robert does kinda the same thing in his thread. Post #2192 except he uses his Lennox to smash a bend line in the metal.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=182565&page=110