Need 3.5" and 1 5/8" corner rounder for 3mm AL composite panel ACP does this exist?

[aluminumwelder]

I know accucutter is highly recommended but their biggest radius is 1.5"
are there any brands that will do 1 5/8" and 3.5" radius?
I know these specialties dies will cost and arm and leg, but if I can find this I can avoid getting a cnc router.
let me know what people think thanks!

 

[CanuckSigns]

I know accucutter is highly recommended but their biggest radius is 1.5"
are there any brands that will do 1 5/8" and 3.5" radius?
I know these specialties dies will cost and arm and leg, but if I can find this I can avoid getting a cnc router.
let me know what people think thanks!

What kind of quantity are you looking to do? I can't think of a corner rounder, but a simple hand router and jig would be fairly quick, unless you are talking about thousands of pieces.

 

[aluminumwelder]

this is for a new product we are making, we expect to sell about 200 a year, so not a huge volume. we might make a jig and hand route them.
a sign shop a few miles down has quoted $5 per rectangle to route all 4 corners using cnc.

my workers would have to do more than 10 an hour to make it more economical to make our own jigs

that is why I think farming it out or getting a corner rouner is the best way to go at this point.

 

[J Hill Designs]

this is for a new product we are making, we expect to sell about 200 a year, so not a huge volume. we might make a jig and hand route them.
a sign shop a few miles down has quoted $5 per rectangle to route all 4 corners using cnc.

my workers would have to do more than 10 an hour to make it more economical to make our own jigs

that is why I think farming it out or getting a corner rouner is the best way to go at this point.

once you make the jig your people could do way more than 10 per hour, but a working relationship with a CNC co. is worth alot.

 

[aluminumwelder]

if they did 10 an hour that would be 6 minutes a piece to cut the 4x10' sheet down with a track saw, to 20x30" pieces
use removable double sided tape to mount on jig, router, remove tape and repeat.

do you have a better work flow? I think by the time you factor in track saw cutting time ten per hour is about all you can do?

 

[a77]

I have one of the old lassco floor model rounder, and I have the die for 1-5/8".
You can pickup these things for nearly nothing, new dies are $80-$120 on ebay I think.

 

[aluminumwelder]

called lassoc and the biggest die they make is 1.5"
checked ebay and the biggest die is 1.5"
thanks anyways.

 

[CanuckSigns]

this is for a new product we are making, we expect to sell about 200 a year, so not a huge volume. we might make a jig and hand route them.
a sign shop a few miles down has quoted $5 per rectangle to route all 4 corners using cnc.

my workers would have to do more than 10 an hour to make it more economical to make our own jigs

that is why I think farming it out or getting a corner rouner is the best way to go at this point.

at $5 per rectangle, I would jump on that! The shop who quoted you that must have made a mistake on the price, that's only $30 for them to load the sheet, hold it down, run the router, unload and clean up, absolutly no way that is feasible!

I would think 1 employee could do this in less than 10 minutes each, once you get a system in place and have your tools set up it will go very quickly. cut all your rectangles, then move on to the corners. at 200 pcs a year, the quantity isn't really there to bother investing in a more efficient system such as a corner rounder.

 

[SqueeGee]

Roper Whitney makes a unit called a "Radius Master". It's over $10k. Nice machines but probably an overkill for what you need.

 

[Mosh]

Cut them on a shear would be 1,000 times faster, AND for a perfectly clean cut.
Get a better jig for you router that doesn't require the taping. I bet I could rout 100 corners in an hour with this jig on our router table.
I have made custom sizes and inverted curved ones for fancy signs too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYtOSkRIlT4

 

[aluminumwelder]

that's a pretty cool tool in that you tube video!
but it only goes up to 1.5"!

Yes I could probably make one, I have some 1/2" aluminum plate lying around. but my time is worth way more than my workers, LOL. Are there any other cool ways to efficiently router corners manually. I have to admit that jig is much faster than my idea of taping the panel to a MDF rectangle with rounded corners.

Yes $5 per rectangle is cheap, but the volume made it a $300 job, better than nothing on a slow day, maybe their machine can cut more than one panel at a time?

 

[AF]

Just make 2 of those jigs in the 2 radii you need. It would be worth the 15 minute investment and they could be made from fall-off material. If you "tap" one of the jigs with your router you can just make another one.

 

[Z SIGNS]

Old school way

You could make an efficient jig to hand route them.
It doesn't take long and is easy build

Cut a mdf blank of the shape.

Hog some slots in your pattern to make a vac plenum.
Attach this to a simple base that be clamped to bench

Drill a hole in the middle of it the size of a shop vac hose.Jam the shop vac hose in the hole underneath your plenum
This is like the hold down on many cnc set ups.

Shear your blanks and go to town with a hand held flush trim router.

You could easily do 3 a minute.

Even if you have a cnc machine and have a lot of blanks to cut say 500+
Doing the above is more efficient.It's a lot less motion

Hope you find this helpful



.

 

[aluminumwelder]

THANKS, i do not use a router that much so the vacuum trick is new to me. appreciated.