[sdiy] Aluminum Thickness for Brake/Shear?

[Tom Arnold]

On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 07:29:08PM -0800, jays at aracnet.com wrote:
> I'm looking into getting one of those small, metal brake/shears to make
> L "trays" to mount PCBs and front panels together.
> 
> So I was wondering what thickness of aluminum people are using to do
> this?
> 
> Don't want to get anything that can't handle the thickness I need.

The 8" brake/shear that I have ( commonly available from Harbor Freight,
Grizzley, etc ) can handle .050 however I also wanted to do PCBoards which
are closer to 0.063 so I shimmed the shear just a little.  If yo uhave a
narrow (1") piece of 0.063 6061-T6 aluminum, it'll handle it, but honestly even
0.050 is tricky if its more then 4" wide or so.

I use 5052-H16 in 0.050 for my brackets and it cuts/forms fine.  6061 is a
bit harder and doesn't cut/form as well.

-- 
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