Now I have fairly well done a mock up of the cage out of aluminium. From here I will make a jig from timber and dowel and use this to bend the delrin.
The pics you will see below are just ones I took along the way. Here are the tools I used.
Dremel (not necessary)
Drill
Drill bits
Files and a file cleaner
Pliers
Tin snips
Hammer
Hacksaw
Screw drivers
Heat gun
GLOVES
Blow torch
Marker pen
Steel punch
Now I am sure most of you will have these bits.
The most importand part. A Blow torch and a durafix Rod
This pic is a very rough outline of how the mounts were to going to fit. As you see later I made some major changes to the shape.
This one is where I marked to out on 1.5mm aluminium and cut it out. Steel would be stronger but this has exceeded my expectations in strength so I stuck with it. After I cut them out roughly I used a couple of files (no. 6 would be all you need) to trim it up to the final shape. Then I used a hole punch mark the holes to match the chassis and drilled them. You can see the one I did for the other side here. The tube has an internal diameter (ID) of 5/8 and all I did was cut them on a 30 degree angle.
Now the most important part for those without a welder. There is this wonderful product called durafix. Here is the website.
http://www.durafix.com.au/index.php?content=home.htm from here you can see that you need a stainless steel brush to rub the surface, (which they give you) the rods themselves and any of the gases they have listed that will reach 400 degrees C or 730 degrees F if thats more your style. I used a torch with MAPP gas and it worked a treat. It is suppose to be 70% stronger that the material and it was. I made a simple butt joint with two pieces of aluminium and no matter what I did I could not separate them, hammer pliers you name it. The website shows you how to use it so have a look.
Now a trial fit and there you go, mounts made. Fairly simple.
Now I made a mock up out of aluminium (5/8) to make the jig and all I did was made one from trial and error. A bit of measuring goes a long way. Then made a matching one to fit. This is the bit that takes a while but seeing I had a blow torch I used this to heat the aluminium and it bent beautifully. Just have a bucket of water handy to cool it down. Just remember to use gloves!!!!! Make it anyway you please and here are the pics. I know the shape looks like another members cage but it looked like a good place to start.
For those of you interested in delrin, here are my conclusions. I heated to with a heat gun and tried to bend it, it bent alright but as many of you know, it bubbles and creases. What WORKS is I heated it more on the outside (which stretches the most) and then using some muscles bent it in shape and dipped it in a nearby bucket of water and VOILA!!!! Smooth bends. That is the secret I think to bending this stuff. I used a MAKITA heat gun on the high setting which is 525 degrees C or 1000 degrees F. But I DID NOT heat the delrin to that. This stuff melts at 180 degrees C so use some common sense with heating, it doesn't have to be completely flexible (so that it will bend under it's own weight) before you bend it but at the first point you think you can bend and hold it in the shape that you want DO IT! and remember to COOL IT ( a bucket of cold water worked fine) while your holding it. It may take a few goes to get the final bend but what is it that you want. To hurry it thru or smooth bends. I know what I want. Now I am sure that there are other ways to bend it but this worked for me. It's cheap stuff so have a go and see. From this pic you can see the smooth side that was dipped in water and the other way of doing it.
No Cooling
Cooled immediately in water
That is about all I could be bothered with for now hope this helps.
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