Aluminum Leaf Springs

[gluebomb]

The past few issues of MCM, the Reed brother's have made leaf spring assemblies out of aluminum sheet. The question I have is how did they cut it straight and prevent it from curling when cutting. I bought a pair of micro tin snips from Micro-Mark, they work great but when you cut something small it curls and slightly bends, any help would be great.

Thanks, Gary

[Ace-Garageguy]

Cutting thin metal stock without curling is always a problem. I've had good luck cutting .010" aluminum and brass by clamping the work to a wood or MDF base with a steel straight-edge, and repeatedly drawing the tip of a razor saw along it. You'll have to lightly dress the cut with files and sandpaper, but it will work.

Scale-Master and comp1839 both do a lot of top-notch work in sheet metal. They'd be the ones with the best answers. Their work has to be seen to be believed.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy

[gluebomb]

Thank you Ace I will try that some time tonight.

[Harry P.]

Either buy aluminum strip already in the correct width and then just trim the individual leaves to length...

Or use styrene strip instead. Much easier.

[Skip]

If you are using a soft enough aluminum alloy, 5052 (non-heat treatable, work hardens) or 6061 - 0 condition (not heat treated) try cutting the strips and burnishing them with drill rod or the smooth end of a drill against a smooth almost polished flat steel surface. Doing so will be like running the strips through a set of rollers. Alternate side to side, as in work one side, flip work the other and repeat until the aluminum strip is flat.

Alternatively you could try to find a 2024 T4, 6061 T4 or T6 or 7075 T6 in thin sheets 0.005 - 0.010. You might have trouble finding this thin though. Try metals depot.

Another alternative would be steel shim stock which is easy to find in thin sheet and or strip form, try McMaster Carr. http://www.mcmaster.com

He steel shim stock will be harder to work but it can be worked the same way as the aluminum strip. Worked in a tooling shop for a short time and got to watch some amazing stuff being made almost out of thin air!

Here would be one source. http://www.metalsdepot.com