laser tube notch+ CNC bending= easy way to make chassis???

[D.Mavis]

I know that shops will laser tube notch, and others will do accurate tube bending per plans, do any shops do both? It seems like it would be ideal to draw a chassis in solid works then email it to a shop and get a pallet of bent and notched tubes that fit together resonably well, and be able to do it one chassis at a time.

Is there a one stop shop like this? does anyone have any experience doing this. any thoughts?

[Scott_F]

Some high end shops build their chassis this way. I believe it is very expen$ive though. I hope someone knows of a one stop shop for this, at a reasonable price. I know one place where they laser cut the tubes and send them out for mandrel bending. I would love to build a chassis this way in the future. It is a big hit up front, but in the long run it would save a lot of labor hours.

[Brandon_Charley]

I think the bread and butter of the idea would be weld it yourself cages, think of the market for Ranger and Toyota cages that the end user doesn't have to buy a bender or notcher to build.

[5racer]

I think the bread and butter of the idea would be weld it yourself cages, think of the market for Ranger and Toyota cages that the end user doesn't have to buy a bender or notcher to build.

they have been doing this for years and they dont fit worth a s--------t .just like 99% of the jeep cages.

[DailyPedal]

Yeah, the process works well for 90deg joints, exhaust and lawn furniture (think thin wall tubing) but is a little tough to work with beyond that. It is complicated to factor in multiple angles, the laser must cut on multi axis ($$$$$ machine). And springback is greatly affected by allowable tubing tolerances so there is a loss in material there until the exact bend is achieved. That loss would be factored in over many (think 1000s of) pieces but would be a big hit for just one job and would come into play on every bend. A good fabricator can factor in some of these variables and actually save considerable money and time over the more hi-tech method. There are more issues but I think you get the idea...

[Shred918]

I was going to say something along the same lines. The best anyone could do is get the all the tubes close to where then need to be. There is certain tweaking and let just say persuasion involved with building a cage.

[ErikShallbetter]

With the exception of the roof bars in our prolite, all of our chassis (pro-2 and Ultra 4x4) feature all laser cut tubing and use mitered joints rather than bends. There are a substantial amout of programming fees up front but it saves in labor costs.

I don't know of any place right now that is using laser notching and CNC bending.

[dzrhino]

I believe the herbst new trucks were done like this. It takes a certain program to change it from solidworks to where it can bend but i know there is a company that does both. Maybe dump will get on here and let you know where they got it done at.

[DailyPedal]

With the exception of the roof bars in our prolite, all of our chassis (pro-2 and Ultra 4x4) feature all laser cut tubing and use mitered joints rather than bends. There are a substantial amout of programming fees up front but it saves in labor costs.

I don't know of any place right now that is using laser notching and CNC bending.

Bystronic laser coupled to an Eaton Leonard CNC bender will. The laser indexes the tube and does the coping, then the bender locates the index marks and does the bending. Problem is there is significant waste using the system on thick wall DOM or 4130 until the amount of springback in each bend is properly factored in-and tubing is expensive. Then there is the issue of the Bystronic needs to be able to cut on multiple axis to match the angles on the cope. The machine I saw only coped at a 90 to the tube so the programmer had to try to factor in the plus or minus in tube length to match the angle...and there was still a lot of work left to do with an end mill miter set up to finish the cope.

[ErikShallbetter]

Wasn't Elite laser doing the Herbst trucks?

[5racer]

i thought most of herbst stuff was cut and weld joints.

[CRAIG_HALL]

Bystronic laser coupled to an Eaton Leonard CNC bender will. The laser indexes the tube and does the coping, then the bender locates the index marks and does the bending. Problem is there is significant waste using the system on thick wall DOM or 4130 until the amount of springback in each bend is properly factored in-and tubing is expensive. Then there is the issue of the Bystronic needs to be able to cut on multiple axis to match the angles on the cope. The machine I saw only coped at a 90 to the tube so the programmer had to try to factor in the plus or minus in tube length to match the angle...and there was still a lot of work left to do with an end mill miter set up to finish the cope.

You dont mean coupled directly do you ? As far as Iknow Bystronic doesn't have dedicated tube laser machine.

We operate 2 Bystronic lasers, you dont need to tilt the cutting head to cope a tube. by keeping the head perpendicular to the tube you maintain the wall thickness of the tube along the cut edge. compare a hole saw or belt sander notched at 45°, the toe is a thin piece of metal the you usually knock down, a laser will keep it full thickness. No more effort to cut a long notch than a simple hole in a tube. programming is straight forward.

Who ever did the tubes you had just needed a bit more practice or simply cut the files given to them. You dont need any special program to draw bent tubes, you can do it in Solid edge or Solid Works. Simple draw the straight sections with the end miters and add the length of the bend (springback factored in) set the clocking and then join the section to make one tube.

[Scott_F]

The problem with 90* or normal to the tube, is that the cope will not come out right at the "point" and opposite the point. At the point it needs to cut 90* at the ID line, and opposite end at the OD line. Inbetween these two points, it should transition or blend from ID to OD. I think there may be software that will do this, or it may be in development. I would prefer a 90* cut that has been tweaked by the software in this way. This is hard to describe, so I hope someone else can add to this.

[ErikShallbetter]

"The problem with 90* or normal to the tube, is that the cope will not come out right at the "point" and opposite the point. At the point it needs to cut 90* at the ID line, and opposite end at the OD line. Inbetween these two points, it should transition or blend from ID to OD. I think there may be software that will do this, or it may be in development. I would prefer a 90* cut that has been tweaked by the software in this way. This is hard to describe, so I hope someone else can add to this."


That is correct, I can't really add to it becasue it is hard to explain, and you did a good job. There is software that does this but you still have to manually select the path.

[CRAIG_HALL]

What tubes have you guys seen that were'nt right ? & who cut them ?I know about the id line od line.. the Bystronic software does this. Bystronic does have an issue that you can't import a solid file of any type. It does have it own tube drawing module for tubes but isn't well suited for chassis/cage work. You can import a flat pattern of the tube though. I draw all tubes as a sheetmetal profile "rolled" up. All the notches work perfect and you can visually see how they will actually look. In the 2 pics you can see at the outside of the 90° the tube is cut on the I.D. and on the inside of the joint its cut on the O.D. line of the tubes.

[DailyPedal]

You dont mean coupled directly do you ? As far as Iknow Bystronic doesn't have dedicated tube laser machine.

Who ever did the tubes you had just needed a bit more practice or simply cut the files given to them. You dont need any special program to draw bent tubes, you can do it in Solid edge or Solid Works. Simple draw the straight sections with the end miters and add the length of the bend (springback factored in) set the clocking and then join the section to make one tube.

Not coupled, operator sets tube in chuck on laser and tube is cut and coped then moved to the bender. The bender indexes off the laser marks and it bends to program. Not sure what software they had-from bystronic I think. The problems come from the different thickness of tubing (within tolerances) and its affect on springback.

[amrein1743]

I have had good success with a company called Paramount. I believe they are in the LA area. They have a 5 axis laser and the tubes I have recieved are spot-on.

Chris

[Jerry Zaiden]

The new KINETIK Trucks by Camburg will be all Laser cut....

[Triaged]

...I draw all tubes as a sheetmetal profile "rolled" up. All the notches work perfect and you can visually see how they will actually look...Do you use Solidworks? Do you do this for straight tubes only? How big of a gap do you leave in the slit? It would be nice if there was a "normal cut" option for weldments...

[CRAIG_HALL]

Do you use Solidworks? Do you do this for straight tubes only? How big of a gap do you leave in the slit? It would be nice if there was a "normal cut" option for weldments...

I use Solid Edge. I use this for all round tubes. I've only done a few bent tubes, it takes a bit of time to line up the clocked tubes but is a straight forward process. I leave a .001 gap and draw the O.D. My sheetmeta thickness is the wall size and I use no bend allowance (neutral, bend, k factor) when I flatten it out.

[KitRacer]

Is this what you guys are trying to do? Using some composite curves as guide curves in two sweeps I was able to pull this off. This is a weldment I edited, not a sheetmetal part. Its much faster than the sheetmetal way. If anyone wants to see the Solidworks file I can add it on Monday.

[Scott_F]

Hey Eric, that is very interesting. Can you explain in detail how you did that? More importantly, is there a way to use this weldment tube for anything? I wish SW would let us extract parts from weldments.

[KitRacer]

Hey Eric, that is very interesting. Can you explain in detail how you did that? More importantly, is there a way to use this weldment tube for anything? I wish SW would let us extract parts from weldments.


You can extract parts from weldments.
First off, make every single tube in your frame a different structural member. Never pick two different pieces of lacing in your frame for the same structural member.
Now when your frame is all done, select a structural member (I think you have to select it in the list of bodies at the top of the tree), right click on it and select "insert into new part" This will start a new part file with just that structural member in it.
That is when I edit the part to have the "Normal Cut" style end on it. Now you have a tube that can be cut on a 3 axis laser or in my case posibly a 4 axis mill....
I will attach my files on Monday.
I am not good at explaining things. Maybe one of the other SW guys can figure out what the hell I did to do the normal cut and explain it better.

[Mark Newhan]

The NASCAR COT is supplied to the teams completely bent and laser notched. I have been to Evernhams shop and went through the chasis shop. It is pretty cool, the fixturing and the processes that they use are very similar to the fixtures designed by DUMP. They can knock out a chasis very fast and repair even faster.

[Scott_F]

Thanks Eric, I just tried what you said and it worked. I wonder how long this has been a feature in SW. I thought we were unable to do this in previous versions. Now please try to explain the 90* normal cut.

Here are my findings:

To make a part from a weldment, you can select from the Cut List at the top of the Design Tree, OR, you can select a Structural Member in the Design Tree, and expand it. Then you select the Trim/Extend, right click, and Insert into New Part. You can make a part from a multiple segment Structural Member, by making a part from each Trim/Extend within that Structural Member.

Now that I have extracted a part from a weldment, I would like to hear some clever ideas of how I can do something useful with it. I imagine you can build an entire chassis from a weldment, extract every tube as a part, and then reassemble the chassis with the new parts.

When I made the part, the planes appear to be related to the weldment, not the part. I could not find a way to move the tube onto those planes, so I devised a way to create a useful plane that would bisect the tube exactly down the center of the cope. I made an axis down the center of the tube, and another axis for the cope. I then made a 3D sketch and put a point on this cope axis. This point and the tube axis were used to create a plane down the center of the tube. I wanted to make a drawing of the tube based on this new plane, so that I could section it and dimension where the notches are.

Since most of us cannot afford to have an entire tube chassis laser cut, the drawing shows how to mark and notch the tube manually. After I notch one end, I measure from the notch to where the second notch goes on the other end. In this case it is 24.482. Using a piece of half tube, I scribe or sharpie a line around the tube. I then add .100 to get 24.582 for the third notch. If anyone has further interest in my technique, I can describe how I keep the notches clocked correctly in another post.

[red-dirt]

We use Solid Edge, and have a 6 axis tube laser. if your design is correct it works fine, we use it everyday. We do chassis on pallets or complete cars.

paul vaughan

Wooten Metal

817-597-9114

[Triaged]

...If anyone wants to see the Solidworks file I can add it on Monday.Post them up. I have done normal-cuts on tube before but it was a pain the way I did it.

[KitRacer]

Alright here it is. This will work well for anyone with a 3 axis laser or a 4 axis mill.

[red-dirt]

Yeah, the process works well for 90deg joints, exhaust and lawn furniture (think thin wall tubing) but is a little tough to work with beyond that. It is complicated to factor in multiple angles, the laser must cut on multi axis ($$$$$ machine). And springback is greatly affected by allowable tubing tolerances so there is a loss in material there until the exact bend is achieved. That loss would be factored in over many (think 1000s of) pieces but would be a big hit for just one job and would come into play on every bend. A good fabricator can factor in some of these variables and actually save considerable money and time over the more hi-tech method. There are more issues but I think you get the idea...

There are only 14 of these machines in the United States. Kim Jong-il will not let these kind of machines in his country, because they have the mental capacity of a spider monkey. But If you would like some lawn chairs made from some 4130 tubing any gauge up to 6" od with any cope you would like this would be no problem. Will post pics. Oh by the way its a 26 axis machine not a oxy-acetylene torch tapped to a stick and a protractor.

RED DIRT

[Triaged]

Alright here it is. This will work well for anyone with a 3 axis laser or a 4 axis mill.Thanks for posting that. Here is how I did it.

[KitRacer]

Thanks for posting that. Here is how I did it.

Your way looks easier than mine. It seems like surfaces are always the answer when you get in a tight spot.

[Triaged]

The part I don't like is that it creates multiple bodies and you need to pick the correct one. That can sometimes cause problems.

[Scott_F]

Great solution Triaged! Thanks! I like this technique because you don't have to do any sketches.

[Scott_F]

For those who may be reading this thread and don't have SolidWorks, here are two jpgs of before and after. The before shot shows what the tube would look like if it was notched by a holesaw, end mill or sander. The after shot shows the laser path at 90*, or normal to the tube, with the red area normal to the ID, and the green area normal to the OD. This version is more desirable because it will fit perfectly and will require no grinding of the pointy bits.

[red-dirt]

There are only 14 of these machines in the United States. Kim Jong-il will not let these kind of machines in his country, because they have the mental capacity of a spider monkey. But If you would like some lawn chairs made from some 4130 tubing any gauge up to 6" od with any cope you would like this would be no problem. Will post pics. Oh by the way its a 26 axis machine not a oxy-acetylene torch tapped to a stick and a protractor.

RED DIRT

typing error, it's a 6 axis sorry.

[DUMP!]

You know, I will admit I'm not always the sharpest knife in the drawer, but why are you guys going to all the trouble to trim a tube normal to the surface? I've used two different laser tube cutting businesses to do work for me. All I have ever given them is the SLDPRT file of the tube and I got back a tube that fit perfectly. I never trimmed the end normal to the surface so why do you feel you need to?

Dump

[Triaged]

I guess I should have mentioned that...I just do it sometimes when I want to see what it will look like:o

[red-dirt]

You know, I will admit I'm not always the sharpest knife in the drawer, but why are you guys going to all the trouble to trim a tube normal to the surface? I've used two different laser tube cutting businesses to do work for me. All I have ever given them is the SLDPRT file of the tube and I got back a tube that fit perfectly. I never trimmed the end normal to the surface so why do you feel you need to?

Dump

agree, and you get better penatration. we have never had a problem with our joints.

[CRAIG_HALL]

Derek I may be one reason..Lol. I actually HAVE to draw it as a sheetmetal part with cuts normal to surface (typical in sheetmetal). Our software doesn't allow importing of 3-D solids, but I can draw in its crude software..

[rebel33]

You know, I will admit I'm not always the sharpest knife in the drawer, but why are you guys going to all the trouble to trim a tube normal to the surface? I've used two different laser tube cutting businesses to do work for me. All I have ever given them is the SLDPRT file of the tube and I got back a tube that fit perfectly. I never trimmed the end normal to the surface so why do you feel you need to?

Dump

You have a Good machine shop!

Mine only wants to hear of a 2D DXF file, mind you with only numbers in the file name otherwise the ancient DOS software fights back...

So I design in solid (actually I don't use weldments, I have my own macros and procedures), trim tubes with the cavity feature and sometimes manually as scott explained - not always worth the trouble though. I than freeze the design by converting to parasolid and reopening it, and than convert each tube to sheetmetal in order to be able to unfold it into a flat DXF the laser shop can accept.

I've a whole TT-like chassis built this way, which was completely self Jigging.

http://www.jeepolog.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=10868&d=1215718597

I havn't had experience with CNC bending. I try to use a minimal number of bends, and simple ones. This Chassis has simple, one plane bends in the roll-cage and that only because FIA design rules mandate them. The bends in the tail of the truck are bi-plane, and they were troublesome when building - but made the whole tail section a one day job, self-jhgging but not very accurate compared with front half of the Chassis which used flat cut pieces for all critical dimensions.

[zjohnson]

Awesome to see how other people do it. I have always just sent in the tube file without normal cuts and the tube cutting companies have always made the tube fit. For the lower runs, and for minimal cost, we have been making templates of notches for the tubes on our recent cars, a little more work, but they are an awesome starting point to fit tubes from. It basically means I have to renotch the tubes I have in solidworks, but very useful when you have awesome fabricators to work with and short run production/prototyping.

[rharriman]

Derek I may be one reason..Lol. I actually HAVE to draw it as a sheetmetal part with cuts normal to surface (typical in sheetmetal). Our software doesn't allow importing of 3-D solids, but I can draw in its crude software..


We have the same restriction are you using Trumph TOPPS software by chance?

For the modeling we use Autodesk Inventor what has some limitations but is also very nice for other things. I can use Inventor, Solidworks, and Solid Edge but am most proficeint with Inventor. Formulas and parameters in Solidworks are a pain and Solid edge has a bigger learning curve but when I evaluated software several years back I found inventoer easiest to use.

Nice work all BTW.

[Scott_F]

I forgot how to turn a tube into sheetmetal in SW. Can someone remind me?

[CADTech]

I dont know if it is any help to everyone here but i have a cnc plasma table that has an attachment to cut tubing. I can cut tubing from 1" diameter to 8" diameter. it fish mouth the ends or write your name around the tube. Its pretty fancy. i just use solidworks and make a sheetmetal tube and it makes all the flat patterns to cut the tubing. I have it set up to where it is just a typical tube joint and you type in your tube size the wall thickness and the angle and it makes the file into a .dxf then i can step out in the shop and cut away.

[lovesdunes]

I forgot how to turn a tube into sheetmetal in SW. Can someone remind me?

I don't know if this is the easiest way but I use a "flat" and "bent" configuration to switch back and forth between the two views.

The Zip file has a SW 2008 tube I bent real quick. If you open it and roll back the steps it's pretty easy to figure out. You will need to click the ConfigurationMangager tab at the top of the design tree to switch back and forth from flat to bent.

It takes quite a while to do a whole frame that way though.

[BallisticFab]

We work with 4 axis laser / plasma and do have good connections to full CNC tube benders. If the operator / programmer is worth a damn the cage will fit together better than any fabricator could dream of doing.

[BallisticFab]

I dont know if it is any help to everyone here but i have a cnc plasma table that has an attachment to cut tubing. I can cut tubing from 1" diameter to 8" diameter. it fish mouth the ends or write your name around the tube. Its pretty fancy. i just use solidworks and make a sheetmetal tube and it makes all the flat patterns to cut the tubing. I have it set up to where it is just a typical tube joint and you type in your tube size the wall thickness and the angle and it makes the file into a .dxf then i can step out in the shop and cut away.

What CAM system do you use to program the 4th axis? Are you doing a Y or X translation or are you programming in radians (or degrees)?

[BenDotCom]

I don't know if this is the easiest way but I use a "flat" and "bent" configuration to switch back and forth between the two views.

The Zip file has a SW 2008 tube I bent real quick. If you open it and roll back the steps it's pretty easy to figure out. You will need to click the ConfigurationMangager tab at the top of the design tree to switch back and forth from flat to bent.

It takes quite a while to do a whole frame that way though.

Holy crap that's a lot of work to create a tube file!

[Scott_F]

I don't know if this is the easiest way but I use a "flat" and "bent" configuration to switch back and forth between the two views.

The Zip file has a SW 2008 tube I bent real quick. If you open it and roll back the steps it's pretty easy to figure out. You will need to click the ConfigurationMangager tab at the top of the design tree to switch back and forth from flat to bent.

It takes quite a while to do a whole frame that way though.

I didn't look at your files yet. I was talking about flattening or unrolling a tube, not straightening or unbending.

[lovesdunes]

Holy crap that's a lot of work to create a tube file!

I've had customers that required all that work. It's tedious for sure but they payed by the hour so it worked out in the end.




I didn't look at your files yet. I was talking about flattening or unrolling a tube, not straightening or unbending.


You want it flattened like you want to use it as a template to wrap around the end of a tube for a complex notch?

[lovesdunes]

Like this?

[Scott_F]

You want it flattened like you want to use it as a template to wrap around the end of a tube for a complex notch?

You're reading my mind dunelover. After you slit the tube, what next?

[lovesdunes]

Slit the tube in the tube sketch...

[lovesdunes]

I hope that helped...

[mebuildit]

All of this is really cool stuff. But I have one question that is buggin me. When you have a tube laser or plasma cut doesn't it make that area really hard ie Rockwell hard? I'm thinking it would be around 80 or so but I don't deal with this like most of you. Just the little bit I have played with laser cut vs waterjet it seems like the laser cut tabs are really hard to chamfer. Does the heat of the laser make the ends harder and does it affect how the weld is at that joint?

I'm just being curious.

[partybarge_pilot]

When you have a tube laser or plasma cut doesn't it make that area really hard ie Rockwell hard?

Your thinking of scale. It depends on what gas there using in the laser. Liquid nitrogen leaves almost no scale.

[Scott_F]

I hope that helped...

Hey, lovesdunes, I'm loving your step by step screenshots with notes. Very nice. I was thinking there was a way to flatten an extruded tube, but this way is simple and easy. Thanks for posting that.

[BenDotCom]

Just want to make sure I am understanding the whole point of this...you are creating a tube as a sheet metal part solely for the purpose of the paper template that the computer will spit out of the printer. This can then be taken out to the shop and used to fit the tube???

Also, wanted to ask if any Solidworks users create their own library for "Structural Members"

[lovesdunes]

Hey, lovesdunes, I'm loving your step by step screenshots with notes. Very nice. I was thinking there was a way to flatten an extruded tube, but this way is simple and easy. Thanks for posting that.

Cool. I'm glad it worked out for you. I do that kind of stuff because sometimes text alone can't tell the story.






Just want to make sure I am understanding the whole point of this...you are creating a tube as a sheet metal part solely for the purpose of the paper template that the computer will spit out of the printer. This can then be taken out to the shop and used to fit the tube???


Pretty much. But the concept can be used for making all kinds of complicated patterns for sheetmetal work as well.

Stuff like this would have been really difficult without it...

http://www.glamisdunes.com/invision/uploads/post-6185-1151218950.jpg

http://www.glamisdunes.com/invision/uploads/post-6185-1151218966.jpg

http://www.glamisdunes.com/invision/uploads/post-6185-1151218959.jpg

[BallisticFab]

The whole point of this would be to get a flat pattern so that you can program the g-code and throw it into a 4 axis blanking machine ie CNC laser or plasma. With the bends laid out in solidworks you can also output code to a CNC tube bender with the right plug-ins.

Also mentioned was the HAZ created by the laser and plasma. What do you think will happen once you weld it? The heat affected zone of a laser is generally 1/10 of that of a plasma btw.

[rharriman]

Just the little bit I have played with laser cut vs waterjet it seems like the laser cut tabs are really hard to chamfer. Does the heat of the laser make the ends harder and does it affect how the weld is at that joint?

Waterjet cutting a tube is not impossible but would be very expensive and difficult. the blow through is capable of cutting through up to six inch plate on some machines and has been known to pierce the bottom of the tank if not protected by some additional plate.

As for the HAZ like others have said it can be minimized with the right gas combinations but additional working should be considered when cutting heat treatable materials like chromoly but a good ole grinder makes short work of even the HAZs most cases.

[sicki]

Your way looks easier than mine. It seems like surfaces are always the answer when you get in a tight spot.


ha... I just got into this thread today...and thought...i have some great input...but you guys beat me too it!! Surfaces would have been my guess also

[Perkio]

Bringing this thing back from the dead because a lot of guys have been asking about tube in SW. Has anyone found a company who bends AND notches tube? Here's another feature that may be handy...

Creating a Sheet metal part from a solid.... (from SW help topics)

Creating a Sheet Metal Part by Converting a Solid Body You can create a sheet metal part by converting a solid or surface body using the Convert to Sheet Metal command.
After you create the sheet metal part, you can apply all sheet metal features to it.

Use the Convert to Sheet Metal command with:



Solid or surface bodies that have:

No shells or fillets
Either a shell or fillets
Both a shell and fillets
Imported parts that are already in the form of a sheet metal part
Note: The imported part must be a constant thickness. This means that sheet metal parts with Forming Tools may not import correctly.
In the Convert to Sheet Metal PropertyManager, you specify the fixed face and thickness of the sheet metal part, the default bend radius, and the edges or fillet faces on which to create bends. If an edge already has a fillet applied, the radius of the fillet is used as the bend radius for the new sheet metal part.

The software automatically selects the edges on which rips are applied. However, you can also manually select rip edges using rip sketches.

Converting a Solid Part to a Sheet Metal Part
The Convert to Sheet Metal command lets you specify the thickness, bends, and rips necessary to convert a solid part to a sheet metal part.
Converting an Imported Part to a Sheet Metal Part
You can convert any imported sheet metal type part to a SolidWorks sheet metal part.
Using Rip Sketches with Convert to Sheet Metal
When a rip is required to create a sheet metal part, you can use 2D and 3D sketches to define the rip. You must create the sketch before converting the solid body to a sheet metal part.
Convert To Sheet Metal PropertyManager
Use the Convert To Sheet Metal PropertyManager to convert a solid or surface body to a sheet metal part. The solid body can be an imported sheet metal part.

[Mark Newhan]

I did not read the whole thread... but I was in North Carolina a couple of years ago, went with a buddy to Everham's shop... The car of tomarrow are all built this way. The process is very refined and the chasis's are very precise.

[ErikShallbetter]

The car of tomorrow is a very in depth and complete process. Very cool to have that kind of technology at your disposal.

[jason@gmachine]

Elite Laser, the only one to be considered for laser tube notching....Talk to Jeremy and im sure he can get you setup with what your looking for. :D

here is the site.

http://www.elitelaser.net/

714-667-1950

[CRAIG_HALL]

Or maybe the only one you've ever used...

[jason@gmachine]

is your setup an actual tube notcher or a flat sheet laser that has an attachment to feed tube and rotate tube?

jason

[CRAIG_HALL]

Bystronic machine with a 4-jaw chuck. Not an attachment.But at least I can use my machine for other jobs. Ask around (Jimco,RPS,Full Potential,Camburg) I'll assure you my pricing is competitive.

[jason@gmachine]

Sounds fancy! But you have completely overlooked one critical element! :eek:

Jeremy is an Internet TV star! :D

http://www.dezerttv.com/garage.php?vidid=1013261247


jason

[CRAIG_HALL]

Lol.. I can go without that

[jason@gmachine]

hahaha, got you with that one! :D


jason

[Dezertpilot]

Sounds fancy! But you have completely overlooked one critical element! :eek:

Jeremy is an Internet TV star! :D

http://www.dezerttv.com/garage.php?vidid=1013261247


jason

The laser notcher is sooooo BA!!!!!:eek: