TOPIC:

I just think it would be good if someone was manufacturing the parts & if having the extra info would give him a poke into being more serious about it than other people I've seen having a go at this sort of thing, then I'd do my best to help. I knew other people are struggling to find parts (Going by prices on Ebay) but hadn't realised how badly people wanted them until reading the posts on TB. You know me, I'm happy making bits I haven't got & I'm not really bothered if they resemble the proper thing or not. I see people who could really benefit from the means to make their missing bits, or rather, have access to someone who could do it for them. I'm sort of hoping this guy might be that person. I'd be more than happy to do a bit here & a bit there to help someone in need, but I couldn't do it all the time or in any quantity as I just don't have the time or finances

@eddrick : knowing your posts on TB the connection was quite undeniable for myself.

I wrote:

I'll send him a message tomorrow with a general question about this in any case and report back.

Okay, I have a reply and one-offs are definitely a possibility.
The parts are made with a laser cutter so sheet metal will be the (only?) useable material.
Monster_Beetle also mentioned he'd respond in the topic shortly...

Hi Guys,

Well, Edou showed me the way to this topic, so I thought lets drop in
As said above I make actually all of my parts out of sheet metal (aluminum in my case). And they are being made using a laser cutter. I am more than open to any requests to help people out if they are in need, for example the Wild Willy grille is a parts that has actually been made on request for a member of TC. And it helped many people out.
The SS parts are what I made, just because I wanted them myself.

I do this more or less as a hobby besides my study, so sometimes it can take a little time for me to develop some parts, but doing customs/ request is always possible. I'll follow this thread of course, and if you have any questions, shoot

Hi MB, good to see you here.

I actually have a question already - how thick can / will the aluminium be?
Having all kinds of ideas but one that would really be great is a protection plate for a DF-01 bathtub chassis.
Should be a pretty straight forward design too.
I'll see if I can make a technical drawing of it... been a while.

And I can't help wondering how feasible or complicated it would be to create the crossmember eddrick drew :

Hilux front crossmember drawing

Just out of curiousity because it's an other member's car ...

A DF-01 protection plate won't be too difficult I think. Lasercutting can go up to pretty high thickness, however I haven't made parts thicker than 3mm, which is actually really rigid.

The Hilux front crossmember must be possible to make. However I don't have a bender anymore, maybe it is possible to ask someone I know with a bender if this bending machine is able to handle that...

I'll definitely get back to you on the protection plate. 3mm sounds fine.
That's some cool machinery...

Don't have any software for the design but I could possibly draw it by hand and then scan it.

MB - is your laser cutter a CNC one? (& do you have access to AutoCAD/dxf compatible software?). If the dxf of the hilux crossmember drawing would be useful, gimme a shout - I'm rubbish at sheet metal work & developments, but I'm thinking you might be the man to come up with the development if you were supplied with the bare bones in electronic format... I know the theory behind allowances for bend radii etc, but in practice it never quite comes out as expected in my experience! We have a CNC router at work (So I'm used to the concept of cutting profiles, dxfs etc) & I'm guessing laser cutter operations would be similar. As far as needing a folder for the crossmember goes, I'd say that might be a bit OTT - if it were me, I'd probably fold it up in a small plain-jaw vice (eg machine vice) & use pliers for the 'wings'. Can't remember the thickness but it's only about 1mm

3mm is really thick for ionly a preotection plate to be honest The SS chassis I make are 3mm en stiff enough just to be a chassis I think for protection 1 or 1,5mm will be enough...

I have access to DXF software, the laser cutting machine is indeed CNC. Also if you don't have any problems with bending/foling the parts yourself I can just supply you with the cut out part that you can bend yourself

monster_beetle wrote:

3mm is really thick for ionly a preotection plate to be honest The SS chassis I make are 3mm en stiff enough just to be a chassis I think for protection 1 or 1,5mm will be enough...

It would be for my Humvee so it could use some extra protection against IEDs...
But seriously - I'm fine with any thickness you (MB) think will be appropriate.
I've been taking the car apart already (only had two runs) for another overhaul!

MB - I'm just thinking about parts for other people. Normally, I'll have a go at doing stuff myself, & if the part turns out to be a pain to make, I'll find a different way for the part to be. My thinking was, say someone wants a part (eg hilux xmember), if I were to supply you with an orthographic dxf, would you be able to turn it into a 2d development suitable for running on the laser cutter? Then, (To keep postage costs down & depending on the recipient's ability) the flat profile could be sent for finalising by the recipient, OR put up for sale as a finished item in your shop. What other machine tooling do you have in your workshop? (To get some idea of what you could/couldn't produce)