Machinery for working with aluminum and steel angle?

[gnc103]

Is there a machine that would cost effectively drill multiple holes in 8 ft angle iron and be quick and easy to set each piece on?

I am new to this forum posted this same question in another area, sorry. We have a slight dilemma. We use 3"x3"x 1/4"(or 3/16" thick) 6061 aluminum angle to make mounting rails that are 20", 74", 78" or 96" long and have about 40 0.406" holes on one side and 30 0.406" holes on the other that have varying placement. We have farmed them out to a local water jet to have them cut, but it is costly and hard for them to set up aluminum angle on it. We also have used a drill press with drill jig to do them by hand, but is too labor intensive.

I would rather farm it out then purchase a machine, but we are only doing 100 to 200 at a time of a given length and can only afford about $10 per piece in machining, so an efficient setup is very important. Any thoughts?

Alternatively we could potentially cut out the pieces from a flat sheet on a water jet and bend them to an angle? However there are forces that could potentially open the bend back up that the structural angle can handle.

I appreciate all your help!

 

[ornerynorsk]

A water jet is NOT the way to drill holes in angle. Find a shop that does fabrication and get them to do it, if you're not willing to do the job. An ironworker or a press brake set up with uni-punches would be a good way to do this. Otherwise, couldn't you hire a part-timer to sit at a drill press or a mill set up with multiple pin stops.

 

[Tmoose]

70 holes for $10 ?
7000 holes for $1000 ?

 

[DDRSS10]

$10 for machining? That means an average shop would have to do between 5-7 pieces an hour to make shop rate. Thats around 450 holes on location through 1/4" of aluminum an hour. You would really need to haul to even do half of that considering load times, traversing, debur(if you want finished parts) and handling up to 8' 3x3 angle. I think you may be out of luck on this one unless you can find someone with a really low shop rate.

Nick

"Speed costs money boys, how fast do you want to go?"

 

[unclesyd]

You might want to set up a work station using the Unipunch. This is especially true if the the holes aren’t evenly spaced and symmetrical.

If the holes are even and symmetrical you might set up a multi stop bar on a drill press.

You could also query the metal perforators.

http://www.unipunch.com/index.html

 

[gab4055]

Punches in a press brake would be your best bet

 

[georgiou]

I don't know about shop rates in US but in EU this sounds like a case where we use an appropriate CNC milling machine(large enough for the workpiece ). With the drawing of each angle configuration the machine shop with only two setups in each workpiece can make fast and accurate the hole patterns.

 

[pirko]

Look on this pages

http://www.handtmann.de

They have special milling machine for long parts. We using this machine on Aerospace industry - stringers. Regards Libor Pírko