I may use steel or aluminum to make fenders. Ive never done that, so my question is how thick should the sheet of metal be for a tank, chain guard or fenders? What I've looked at goes by millimeters, maybe 1 or 2mm?
Sheet metal for tanks and fenders.
- Thread starter Wildcat
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Are you intending to metal shape it? As in are you going to add curves and compounding radii?
That will drastically affect your starting thickness, especially for aluminum, not as much for steel, but still some
Of all the metal I’ve done in the past for steel products it is typically a 16 or 18 gauge material depending on the application
If you are looking at aluminium and this is your first attempt, then 1 mm should be easily adequate.
Start off simply, like making those stubby short mudguards. Remember that you are going to have to re-anneal the metal from time to time, especially if you are making what is effectively a three dimensional object.
Book yourself a ton of time.
For mudguards I would be considering some kind of rolling tool that you could pass the metal through.
Start off simply, like making those stubby short mudguards. Remember that you are going to have to re-anneal the metal from time to time, especially if you are making what is effectively a three dimensional object.
Book yourself a ton of time.
For mudguards I would be considering some kind of rolling tool that you could pass the metal through.
Very good point. I totally forgot about annealing
If you do aluminum, you will definitely have to anneal the material or else you’ll get splits and cracks. But even if you do hot, rolled or cold roll steel in a thin gauge annealing it will make your life so much easier.
