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DT-P38
19th June 2012, 11:10 PM
Hello there,

I see a high number of Defenders have the plate sections in various arreas for protection and perhaps also to hide cancer or old war wounds. I now have a need to cover up a few less than perfect spots (foot prints, not rust) and the desire to trick the overall look up a bit (IMO).

I see there are a few guys selling large sheets of plate on ebay now and want to know does anyone have templates for DIY'ing and also, how is it cut neatly and cleaned up around the edges to give a smooth straight look?

Any advice/guidance welcome.

Hoo-Roo, Dave.

hghareeb
20th June 2012, 09:57 AM
i would cut it by water jet , ask if any water jet near by your area .

Mick_Marsh
20th June 2012, 11:35 AM
I stumbled across some dimensional drawings the other day. I'll see if I can find them again.

DT-P38
20th June 2012, 11:37 AM
DIY water jet cutting? What the? Alternative DIY ideas please? E.g. Tungsten blade on circular saw? Throw a blade away on the job but cost effective??? Wouldnt help for cutting curves though.

Have never had a go at the stuff before so any experience shared would be appreciated.

tomalophicon
20th June 2012, 11:53 AM
You could cut it with Oxy and finish the edge with a grinder and flap disc.

86mud
20th June 2012, 12:21 PM
I purchased a blade for my circular saw - cost $50. Great for straight cuts.

The corners - I have always used a jigsaw. You will need to do a lot of filing/sanding to remove the saw cuts, but I have always had success doing it this way.

Cheers
Andrew

DT-P38
20th June 2012, 09:58 PM
Might be time for a bench grinder/sander/buff!

Anyone know how they make the black stuff black? Is it just painted?

Brad110
20th June 2012, 10:23 PM
DAVE
It is easy to cut with a fine bladed tungsten saw blade, alloy blade in jig saw and finish with flap disk or grinding disk for aluminium or masonry. Disks for steel are too course and fill up with the aluminium and can expand with heat build up and disintegrate.

The colour is paint or powder cote. I used white because black becomes too hot to touch. Unpainted also looks good given the zinc plated trim on the County anyway.

You can use 2 or 2.5 and 3 mm plate and it is readily available.

Brad

Def_9
20th June 2012, 11:20 PM
You could cut it with Oxy and finish the edge with a grinder and flap disc.

Just to be clear Oxy/Acetylene or Oxy/LPG won't cut Aluminium. You could make friends with a sheet metal worker/boiler maker who works in a workshop with a Plasma cutter manual or CNC, a CNC laser cutter or the aforementioned CNC water jet cutter. Give them some dimensions and I'm sure it wouldn't take more than a hour of there time to have the pieces for two wing tops and almost any other spot you can think of covered in ally checker plate. Although last time I checked these types of machines/trades command at least $100/hr... and thats probably being conservative.
But I am now interested to find out how much it would be to get some cut out.

For my two bobs personally I have cut out 25mm Aluminium plate with a standard circular saw blade (it was a at the limit of the poor saws abilities though) so 2 or 3mm shouldn't be a problem.

You could also do all but the long cuts with a hacksaw and clean it up with a file. But who doesn't like annoying everyone within a 10k radius with the sound of cutting sheet metal with power tools!:D

Benz
21st June 2012, 09:03 AM
both myself and a mate of mine got some bits done up out of checker plate at a local sheet metal place.

He hid some light panel damage which occurred when he rolled his 110 on it's side at the beach and I got a kick panel made up to protect where my ladder goes up to the roof.

the guy was happy to do a cashy and it wasn't all that expensive.

didn't take them long as they have all the right tools and they came out looking schmick.

I also think we would of been struggling to fold the alli as crisply as they did.
for me the folding on the checker plate on my mates 110 is what made the job look great

blue_mini
21st June 2012, 09:49 PM
A laser cutting place ive dealt with start at $70 for a job, then costs going slowly up from there, couldn't imagine it'd go up too far, as that was them supplying the material and doing .dxf files too.

If you can get it to a .dxf format (basically a universal file) any cnc water or laser cutter should be able to do it. All it takes is a basic CAD program to make those.

Benz
22nd June 2012, 09:57 AM
place I used just had a massive guillotine.

Mick_Marsh
22nd June 2012, 03:38 PM
Time to get a Dual Saw TM

DeeJay
22nd June 2012, 05:27 PM
Dave,
Get some newspaper/brown paper & scissors & suitable tape & make your own templates. Its so simple.
Then get a 5 or 4" grinder & those very thin blades. Cut from the top ( treadplated side) using a clamped bit of angle or square steel to get the straight runs perfect IE run the blade up against the steel at 90deg.
For the rounded sides do multiple straight cuts & then round off with a flat file. Use the flat file to smooth the undersides of the whole job.
The rounded fronts for the guards & bonnet can be cold formed using a rubber mallet & similarly rounded item ( I used a log destined for the fireplace) just keep tapping until it matches the Landie.
Then etch prime the aluminium, finishing off with Satin black spraypack.
You should use 5 or so blades all up.

slug_burner
22nd June 2012, 06:58 PM
You can cut aluminium with a tungsten tipped tool. Circular saw, router or planes have been in use in the boat building industry for ages. I have just used the tungsten tipped saw blade on my circular saw normally used to cut wood.

I think the black finish is anodized.

DEF130
17th July 2012, 02:36 PM
For the time effort and possibility of screwing up the cheq plate let alone my mind I could not be bothered making my own and simply scanned ebay purchassing a set of black cheq plate wing tops for around $200.. Went to bunnings and picked up some black pop rivets. Word of warning one needs to hold their breath when drilling the first hole into your nice n shiney guards....)))