Cutting stainless steel sheet: Any advice?

[69427]

I'm planning to make some more SS insulator shims for my caliper pistons. In the past I cut the shims out with my plasma cutter, but that method always required a lot of additional grinding to clean up the shape. Just looking for suggestions on any better method. The new shims will be out of .076" material.

Thanks for any help here.
Mike

 

[phantomjock]

I bet you want it fast?
Can't speak to price, or speed of this service, but you might check out:
https://sendcutsend.com/services/waterjet-cutting/
Don't "do" CAD? Make an accurate drawing - tracing the outline of the cuts. Then Scan and use an online scan to DXF. I've not tried this sorce (either):
https://cad.online-convert.com/convert-to-dxf
But it is a process I am familiar with. There are some free converters you can download - I've done that in the past. Sometimes easier to generate a DXF of a part and import.
[Not without its own challenges.]

I may need to do the same - I see I have one shim on the shelf - and might need another...

Cheers - Jim

 

[phantomjock]

OOPS - I meant Scan2CAD.
https://www.scan2cad.com/blog/dxf/convert/image-to-dxf
Cheers - Jim

 

[69427]

I bet you want it fast?
.............................

I may need to do the same - I see I have one shim on the shelf - and might need another...

Cheers - Jim

Actually, I always want it cheap.

I have an older set of stainless shim insulators that I used with the stock calipers. I got those laser cut by my cousin who owns a proto shop that does that kind of work. He did me a (free) favor cutting those out, but I hate mooching too much so I did my latest shims for my Wilwood calipers using my plasma cutter. I'll probably do that same method again, as I'm trying to do it in my garage and on the cheap.

 

[BBShark]

.076 SS could be roughed out with a cutoff disk on an angle grinder and cleaned up with a grinding stone. Would not be fun but doable.

 

[69427]

.076 SS could be roughed out with a cutoff disk on an angle grinder and cleaned up with a grinding stone. Would not be fun but doable.

I might give that a try. When I've used my plasma cutter I always had to spend time cleaning up (grinding) and removing the slag material on the edges anyway, so using the cutoff disc probably won't be any more time intensive than what I've been doing.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

if you were close enough, I have a shear that can cut the straight lines.... .076 could be cut in my jump shears, thus any HVAC shop who builds their own ductwork would be capable of chopping it out.

 

[69427]

if you were close enough, I have a shear that can cut the straight lines.... .076 could be cut in my jump shears, thus any HVAC shop who builds their own ductwork would be capable of chopping it out.

Yeah, I'm halfway across the country from you, but I still appreciate your generous offer.

 

[69427]

Well, next question. I'm working on the C5 front suspension crossmember that I'm cutting and welding to adapt it to C4 lower control arms. I've cut ten pounds of unneeded length, width, and material from it, but there's a pound or two of flanges and bosses/pads that I can't remove by cutting, and I'm looking for a way to do some fast and rough grinding on those areas. I use my carbide bits quite often, but they're too slow and "fine" for removing the amount of material I want to. Anyone have a secret or technique to grinding off large amounts of aluminum in short amounts of time?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

your limit will be your imagination - drill inside spots out, cut parts off.... biggest issue with aluminum is it builds up on the tool if you don't use one of the strategies (e.g. spray lubricant) to keep it from building up.

 

[BBShark]

I have used cut off wheels similar to this. My limited experience is they work well on 6061 T6 but less well on 3000 series extruded shapes.

https://www.amazon.com/BHA-Resistant-Aluminum-Grinder-Cutting/dp/B07KJNV9HR?th=1

 

[rtj]

Sawsall on the alum. Probably would not need fancy blades. I really like my HF bandsaw on alum and you can get a deep cut version.

I read a jigsaw with carbide blade may work good on SS.


Yeah, I know HF is not the best, but that bandsaw has been great on the swag stand.

 

[rtj]

Any luck on this project? I was thinking if the metal is thin, you could sandwich it between plywood.

 

[69427]

Any luck on this project? I was thinking if the metal is thin, you could sandwich it between plywood.

I apologize for the delay here. I somehow managed to overlook this earlier thread. "Higher" priority stuff on the car has cut in line, but making more insulating shims is still in the plans. I'm interested in more details regarding your plywood sandwich suggestion.

 

[rtj]

0.76” SS probably won’t cut with a carbide jig saw unless you clamped it in between some 1/8 aluminum or some wood. That partical board might work mdf or hdf.

 

[phantomjock]

Yeah, I know HF is not the best, but that bandsaw has been great on the swag stand.

I should post this in the Metal Tools Thread, but the portable Bandsaw and the Hercules (HF) mount have become my No.1 go-to tool on the workbench.
I looked at the SWAG mount, but then I built one from some 8020. After a year, and on sale, the opted for the HF mount.




Mine is mated with a WEN Bandsaw - functional equivalent and less money.
Its not varriable speed, but I have a controller from other tools that works just fine.

Cheers - Jim

 

[BBShark]

I "saw" the HF mount. It seems pretty useful setup as a cutoff chop saw but I would like to use it as a band saw. A friend has his mounted on a stand. I like that, maybe I can talk him into making one for me!

 

[phantomjock]

If he can do it at the same price point - good, no great! The 8020 one I did from "scrap" worked well, but I had to fabricate a table for it. When I bought the HF, it came with the table (platen?).

Sorry Mike - I'll get back on track, so-to-speak. I'd use the plywood sandwich on my bandsaw to cut those brake pad shims. I may need to do the same thing. Seem to have lost one in the garage!

Cheers - Jim

 

[69427]

If he can do it at the same price point - good, no great! The 8020 one I did from "scrap" worked well, but I had to fabricate a table for it. When I bought the HF, it came with the table (platen?).

Sorry Mike - I'll get back on track, so-to-speak. I'd use the plywood sandwich on my bandsaw to cut those brake pad shims. I may need to do the same thing. Seem to have lost one in the garage!

Cheers - Jim

Not a problem regarding the bandsaw discussion. I really need to get one one of these days. I had one years ago but it never cut straight. Kinda soured me on getting another one.

I just got some .035" stainless sheet the other day, so I'm going to make some shims out of that initially. This way I don't have to wait for the brake pads to wear substantially before I can fit a shim between the pistons and pads.

 

[69427]

Well, got four .035" insulator shims cut out the other day. Sandwiching the material while cutting it with my jig saw worked well.
With that done, I'm trying to figure out if it's a productive or wasteful use of my time to cut out two 5" rings of this material to slip over the front wheel hub lug studs to put more thermal resistance between the brake rotor hat and the wheel bearing hub. It should make the heat path more difficult, but I don't know how significant it might be.

 

[69427]

Well, lucked into a scrap sheet of .040" titanium that a good friend had left over from a former work project. Enough sheet area to make several caliper pad insulator shims. I currently have no good idea of the magnitude of challenge it will be to cut out and drill these shims.

Depending on which thermal conductivity chart one sees on the interwebs, there doesn't seem to be much difference in the insulating capabilities of titanium versus stainless steel, but the increased thickness (+14%) of the titanium shims (versus the .035" stainless shims above) should reduce the heat flow into the caliper pistons, and what the heck, titanium sounds a lot more exotic than stainless steel.

 

[69427]

Well, the titanium experience went better than expected. I was able to use some tin snips to make the rough shape cut out, and then used my bench grinder to trim everything to the size I needed (the bright sparks were amusing to watch), and the cotter pin retention holes drilled out pretty easily with some extra pressure and cutting oil. Made four of the shims. While not big numbers in the absolute sense, these .040" Ti shims are noticeably lighter than the .035" SS shims.

 

[phantomjock]

With those sparks, and swarf from grinding - careful for a thermite "situation."
A friend told me he had a fire on his plasma rig. Lucky he got it out and saved the shop.

Cheers - Jim