home made enclosure help requested

[Chico]

I was thinking of trying my hand at building my own enclosures.  Companies like harbor freight etc sell brakes relatively cheap.  For example, a brake that can bend 1.5mm (16 ga) aluminum in lengths up to 18 inches is just over 15 bucks.  I also found a souce for sheets 4'x8' of 16 gage aluminum pretty cheap.

I would recon that 16 ga aluminum would be sufficiently strong for homespun stomp boxes.

My question is, does anyone have any tips on ways to cleanly cut the aluminum to size.  I figure that homemade boxes  may not look as polished as the hammond 1590s, but I can live with that if I can do it this cheaply, so long as the boxes still look nice.

I know that I can buy a shear, but those things run hundreds of dollars.  Any cheaper alternatives?

Also, I would think 16 gage is too thin to tap for screws.  I have seen some rack gear that uses something I think are called well nuts.  They are short threaded barrels that punch through the material where the screw is to tap into?

Any ideas where to get something like this?

Best regards

[casey]

here are some tips about bending and making your own
enclosure:

http://partouze.chez.tiscali.fr/stomp/electro-moronix.htm

God Bless!

[petemoore]

The 'Hack' way that works.
 clamp a straight edge on next to your cut line [right next to] so the chisel will be on the line.
 scrape pulling all the way down the line, then ever so slightly tilt the chisel an you can start a 'v' shaped channel...continue till you can get a clean bend [start with small angles] [just heating and weakening the metal only under the line...you should be able to get a clean breakoff going.
 Then just file/sand the edge.
 If you use shears to do a deep cut you'll bend the flatness right out of the piece because the splits have to go around the hinge of the blades and related metal of the shears pivot.

[Chico]

Thanks for the tips.

I like the straight edge idea.  I had fears that shears would bend the material too much out of shape.  I am also unsure if a am confident enough to try my hand at a grinder with a cutoff wheel.  Although this may not be a bad way to go for rough cuts.

So can I use the score trick on material as thick as 16 ga. aluminum?  Also, I got lost on the phrase about heating and weakining the metal only under the line.  Do you mean heat by the friction of the chisel?

Thanks for all your help.

[dan]

a high school shop classroom would have a shear.  i looked at that site posted above and if you put it in a bench press to bend it, put a towl around it so it doesn't rough it up.