Bench Shears for cutting material?

[fretsman]

Just would like some feedback if anyone has used a Bench Shear to cut material to size.

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?P...MITEM=130-5700

I have a job that requires a CRS (1018) material finished size of .125 x .500 x .500. The stock is already .125 X .500 so it's just a matter of cutting to length. Tolerances are +-.010 on the length. It's a repeating job and sawing these and then trimming the ends on the mill takes quite a bit of time. Even if I have to still trim on the mill, I would think the bench shear may be much faster but was hoping it might give a decent finish and square enough on the ends with the right fixture. The ends of the part do not have to be perpendicular to the thickness, just not all fugged up, if ya know what I mean -

What kind of finish cut do these bench shears actually give? I have to consider deburring time of course so please let me know what you know -

Thanks as always-
Dave

[tikka308]

Dave - I used to use one of these benchtop shears that had an identical shearing motion except it was hydraulic-powered (i'm assuming you're referring to one like #130-5705). With the stock only being 0.5" wide, you might be OK, but I found that they do tend to cause the piece to twist. You could probably hold ten-thou tolerance with a stop-gauge. A much more accurate, square & repeatable method would be with a flat-shear (i've got a 12" Diacro. Repeatable to much tighter tolerances. Limited to 16-gauge CRS, but there's a chance the fact that this is only 0.5" wide might be OK...

[JWB_Machining]

Hey, I used a hydraulic powered bench shear in college (Only 8 months ago) to cut .125" aluminium and it was the best thing on the planet. I was using it to make fenders for a SAE Baja car. There was no need to deburr because where it cut it left a similar but smoother finish than a table top or hand held set of metal shears would leave on thinner material, meaning I could run my bare hand over the sheet of aluminium afterwards and not get cut. And it was also within the tolerances you're looking for.

My school had a fancy industrial hydraulic powered one could take sheets 4' wide, wether or not the one you're showing will be as good I couldn't tell. But I'd assume the finish would be as good.

[fretsman]

Thanks for the info, I'm leaning on giving one of these a shot and I'll report back if I do. If anyone else has any experience with these, I'd love to hear it.

Dave

[tikka308]

Any chance you can find one to give a test on? Or maybe ask someone here who has one to try the same cut? I have a feeling it's not going to leave the clean & straight edge you're looking for...

[fretsman]

Originally Posted by tikka308 Any chance you can find one to give a test on? Or maybe ask someone here who has one to try the same cut? I have a feeling it's not going to leave the clean & straight edge you're looking for...

lol, that's kind of the reason for me starting this thread, my good friend -

Do you think I should post this question in another area here?

Dave

[tikka308]

Yea yea, I hear you.

I believe this forum ("General Machining Discussion") gets more eyes than some of the sheet metal / bending forums. Maybe someone will see this in the next few days and chime in.

The more I think about it, the less I'm thinking those shears are going to be able to "shear" through something 0.125" thick. Just too much material.

[fretsman]

I'm a bit skeptical myself about how "nice" or easy it will cut or how long the blade would even hold up. I do have other thin aluminum jobs that it will come in handy for though so it definitely won't be a complete waste.

Thanks for chiming in, bro-

Dave

[USMCPOP]

Can you use a slitting saw?

[Med-Pac]

Here's my 3 cents,

Another option for this size of part would be a stationary or turret punch. Buy a .5 x .5 punch, I believe you'd need about .005-.010 clearance on the die. Depending on the material I see you're also handling alum. I'd have to check my clearance charts, but I think alum. needs a bit more. Instead of .50 bar stock, step up to .625 or .75 wide for a stationary punch (enough to grab the stripper or urethane), and for the turret you could punch them out of a 4x8 sheet.

Mike

[fretsman]

I believe a slitting saw would be worse (time-wise) than the band saw, unless you're meaning something different than what I'm thinking?

As for a press, yep, that'd be terrific if I had one and I don't have room enough for even a benchtop 5 ton -

Thanks again-
Dave