I welcome all fans to craft, I propose to consider the instructions for the manufacture of a manual machine for cutting sheet steel do it yourself. The machine is a very powerful metal shears, it can easily cut steel up to 3 mm thick. Author with homemade cuts steel plates, corner, and also easily and evenly the machine is capable of cutting thin sheet steel. The author made knives from an automobile spring; steel was hardened. All components of the machine are made of thick sheet steel, which creates some difficulties in terms of cutting. One way or another, if the project interests you, I propose to study it in more detail!
Materials and tools used by the author:
Material List:
- thick sheet steel;
- a piece of spring from the car;
- bolts and nuts;
- square steel rods;
- paint for metal.
Tool List:
- plasma cutter or autogen;
- drilling machine;
- grinder;
- belt sander;
- vise;
- drawing tool, paper, scissors. Marker;
- taps for threading;
- oil for hardening.
Homemade manufacturing process:
Step one. Making knives
We make knives for the machine, for this you need thick sheet steel, which can be hardened to high hardness. The author chose an accessible spring steel for these purposes, he had a piece of spring lying around. Such steel is spring, but if it is hardened to the maximum hardness, its strength is quite enough for the manufacture of knives.
To begin with, the spring will need to be straightened, and for this the steel is annealed, it is heated very much, in other words. The author used a blowtorch and autogen to warm up. When the steel was calcined, the author bent the plate with a special vice, you can handle it with a hammer.
Next, we cut the spring into two parts, and making sure that the plates are even, we can grind it. Bevels on such knives are not made, the “blades” must be ground at an angle of 90 degrees.
Step Two Cut the machine parts
Such machines need to be made of very thick sheet steel, it is this factor that will determine how thick the machine can take. The author made templates of machine parts from paper, and then transferred them to a thick steel sheet.
You can start cutting, the author decided to cut such material with autogenous, on its basis, the author built a small cutting machine.
Having cut out the main silhouettes of the parts, they now need to be brought to mind, since there will be slag on the parts, drops of solidified steel, and so on.Here we need a grinder with a thick disk for grinding work. A little effort, and now the author turned out great parts for the machine.
Step Three Assembly
All hinge assemblies will work on bolts, bolts must be taken from good strong steel, ordinary ones from a hardware store, will not last long. We also choose a larger bolt diameter so that the machine works for a long time without repair. We drill holes for the mounting bolts of the knives and cut the threads. As for all other power bolts, we fix them with nuts with a plastic retaining ring.
Two additional ears are also visible in the photo, we weld them securely to the machine, and we weld everything with steel square rods. Around the knives, the author welded whole frames from square rods so that the knife received reliable support and was not dependent on bolts.
So that the machine can be fixed, we weld a corner as the base and drill holes in it.
Step Four Hardening knives
Knives must be hardened, otherwise the steel will “slip off” and the machine will not work. For hardening, it is necessary to heat the steel to a point where it will not be magnetized. The author heats the edge of the knife with autogenous, and then immerses the knife in oil, and hardening occurs. Do not try to throw the knife into a plastic canister, otherwise everything will melt and light up, as happened with the author. During quenching, oil will spray and burn, be extremely careful and carry out work on the street.
Step Five Test
We put the knives on the car, paint everything and you can work. For demonstration, the author easily and evenly cut a thin sheet of steel, the thickness of only 1 mm. Further, the author was already cutting steel plates, and even a corner, the machine can easily cope with non-hardened steel 3 mm thick.
From time to time it will be necessary to trim the knives, as well as tighten the knots so that the knives pass each other with a minimum clearance. But in general, the homemade product turned out to be reliable, durable and very useful, you can cut steel with such a machine without noise, dust and overheating.
The project is completed on this, I hope you liked the homemade work, and you found useful thoughts for yourself. Good luck and creative inspiration, if you decide to repeat this. Do not forget to share your ideas and homemade things with us!