Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: outer cover aluminum  (Read 9850 times)

Offline randydrivesabus

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1072
outer cover aluminum
« on: December 01, 2007, 12:46:20 pm »
you know that sheet that covers the outer cover? do they sell that material at Lowes or HD? I guess it would have to be about 19" wide. Maybe they sell flashing like that. anyone ever buy any?

Offline pttom

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 33
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2007, 12:57:54 pm »
I use the flashing from Lowes on all my top. Works great and will never have to be replaced.

Offline randydrivesabus

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1072
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2007, 01:00:02 pm »
yeah...i just looked online lowes.com and found 20"x50' roll for about $35. do you have an easy way to cut it accurately?

Offline pttom

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 33
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2007, 01:06:30 pm »
I just use a framing square and tin snips. very easy.

Offline randydrivesabus

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1072
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2007, 01:13:00 pm »
thanks. easy is good.

Offline Robo

  • Technical
  • Administrator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 6778
  • Gender: Male
  • Beekeep On!
    • Bushkill Bee Vac
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2007, 01:40:53 pm »
I buy the rolls of flashing at Lowe's too.  I use a framing square and chisel and just scratch score it and bend it to break.  I find it is a straighter/cleaner cut then with snips.
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline T-Bone 369

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 10
  • Gender: Male
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2007, 03:18:05 pm »
Robo is onto the best way to cut rolled alum - a solid strait edge and something sharp (a utility knife works great).  Score it once (doesn't have to be too deep) along the strait edge (you have to hold the strait edge pretty tightly - a clamp or two is bennificial) then flex the alum along the score a couple of times and it will snap right off.  Remember to watch the shart edges.

A realy handy tool for bending the flashing is a hand break - it's a flat peice of metal with groves in the sides.  The one we have has different bend depths on the different bend sides (3/4 inch and 1 1/2 IIRC) making it easy to get consistent crisp bends.



Here is one from Home Depot that runs $11 - mine is different only in that the short ends are also notched to make short inside bends. 

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?jspStoreDir=hdus&catalogId=10053&marketID=401&productId=100341484&onlineStore=true&locStoreNum=8125&keyword=100341484&langId=-1&searchRedirect=100341484&storeId=10051&endecaDataBean=com.homedepot.sa.el.wc.catalog.beans.EndecaDataBean%402e434a62&ddkey=Search
« Last Edit: December 01, 2007, 05:36:21 pm by Robo »
Old enough to know better
Young enough not to care

Offline Robo

  • Technical
  • Administrator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 6778
  • Gender: Male
  • Beekeep On!
    • Bushkill Bee Vac
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2007, 05:38:26 pm »
Thanks T-Bone.    I'm gonna have to pick one of those up.   The cutting is a piece of cake, it is the bending that is the hassle.  A block of wood and a hammer doesn't do the great job....


Rob....
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline randydrivesabus

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1072
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #8 on: December 01, 2007, 06:05:45 pm »
so how would you use that to fold something 20" long? fold once then slide it down to fold again?

Offline asprince

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1743
  • Gender: Male
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #9 on: December 01, 2007, 07:06:07 pm »
A framing square and a utility knife over a piece of wood. Tin snips for the notches. I have an 8' aluminum brake that I use in my business. Makes nice covers.

Steve
Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resembalance to the first. - Ronald Reagan

Offline BenC

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 158
  • Gender: Male
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #10 on: December 01, 2007, 11:45:53 pm »
so how would you use that to fold something 20" long? fold once then slide it down to fold again?

You could do that, but will always see a kink right where the hand tongs ended.  Either find someone who will let you use a table break, or go look at one to get the idea and make it yourself, Appalachian style ;)  Clamp the metal between a piece of 2x4 ripped so it has a nice sharp corner (set the tablesaw at about 10degree bevel) and a table top (not the dining room table), right at the edge and leave the 1/2 or whatever bend you want exposed.  use a 2 ft 1x4 in your hands- palms up, and fingers under edge of table.  Your fingertips will be the hinge and you lift the wrists until the desired bend is achieved.  Additional weight on the table may be needed, but for trim stock less than 2ft this should work fine for you, I did it like this for quite a while before building a "real" break for the purpose.  You may want two rips of 2x4, one at the 21-3/4inch? length and one at an 18 inch?  length to avoid messing up those inside corners.  If you have any metal left over, be creative and make metal roofed bird feeders or something.

Offline randydrivesabus

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1072
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #11 on: December 02, 2007, 09:06:40 am »
my neighbor across the road who died a few years back had a break that we used when doing his roof but they are very expensive...or so it seems for what you get. i wonder what he did with it???? i bet its sitting in one of the outbuildings over there...theres no one living over there and if he were alive he'd practically beg me to use it. you know what i'm thinking :evil:
when i flashed my roof i bent it using the edge of a work bench but its really had to get the crisp bend you get with a break.

Offline Cindi

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 9825
  • Gender: Female
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #12 on: December 02, 2007, 11:00:18 am »
Men....(and you too Linda!!!!).  Every time I read posts about you guys  building stuff for the bees, innovation, new ideas, new plans, I get so envious that I can barely stand it.

The worst thing in the world that I could ever have to do is to build something.  That is hideous to me.  That is probably because I have the type of mind that cannot follow these types of rules, the rules of carpentry, building.  Only knows, I wish that I could have even the tiniest bit of that ability, it is just not there.  I can garden, weed, build rockeries and gardens and design gardens and such.  BUT.... build anything like that that  encompasses cutting, measuring, (I even have difficulty following a pattern to make a blouse or a dress), well, I think that comes from an alien planet for sure.

So.....I depend on my Husband, who is a master at these types of things.  He bends over backwards to help me out, and does wonderful jobs with the things he designs for me.

I just wish that I didn't have to bother him so much, he has so many things to do to.

So, I want to tell all you guys, I take my hat off to you all, you are wonderful and marvelous at what you are all doing with the building and designing.  Be grateful that you all have these special skills, never take that for granted, as you just plain and simply probably do.  It is a gift, given to so many humans in this world.  Cherish it.

Eeeks....you know me, I tend to go on and on and on and on, sometimes I feel like I am the rabbit on the battery commercial when it comes to sending these thoughts through my fingertips, to my laptop keyboard, to eventually be read and absorbed by the minds of others.  Have a wonderful and beautiful day, enjoy your skills, use your skills, and most all, best of great health to us all.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline mark

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 201
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #13 on: December 02, 2007, 04:47:33 pm »
next time you see bed frames at the curb grab them up.   you can cut them any length and use them as forms to bend sheet metal.  i sandwich the sheet between two rails and bend at the right angle.   i use the finished edge to roll the edge of the project piece for a safe finished look. made many a bird cage tray this way and my hive tops.

Offline randydrivesabus

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1072
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #14 on: December 09, 2007, 12:34:27 pm »
i finally got around to completing my first outer cover and it came out pretty good. i cobbled up a bending system out of a couple of old bed frame parts, c clamps, and vice grips. it works very nicely. the corner treatment is a learning experience. i think if i cut diagonally before bending it will work best. the one i made i didn't do that but notched the side i bent first then overlapped it and fastened it. the air stapler is too powerful for the aluminum so i am using a hand stapler. that works well.
how do you guys do the corners?

Offline mark

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 201
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #15 on: December 09, 2007, 09:21:35 pm »
the top is more weather proof if ya just bend and fold the corners.  i don't make any cuts at the corners

Offline randydrivesabus

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1072
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #16 on: December 10, 2007, 07:02:26 am »
i don't know how i can bend a side without being able to move the adjacent bent edge out of the way.

Offline Robo

  • Technical
  • Administrator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 6778
  • Gender: Male
  • Beekeep On!
    • Bushkill Bee Vac
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #17 on: December 10, 2007, 09:13:21 am »
Just like wrapping a Christmas present :-P
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison



Offline randydrivesabus

  • Queen Bee
  • ****
  • Posts: 1072
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #18 on: December 10, 2007, 09:26:34 am »
Just like wrapping a Christmas present :-P
i was never very good at that. i will try what you suggest on the next one i build...i understand the concept.
ho ho ho

Offline deantn

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 87
  • Gender: Male
Re: outer cover aluminum
« Reply #19 on: December 10, 2007, 10:02:52 am »
i the air stapler is too powerful for the aluminum so i am using a hand stapler. that works well.
how do you guys do the corners?

Using the air stapler is just a matter of turning the air pressure down, if running 90#'s pressure turn it down to 75#'s pressure and try that if not it turn it down a little more.

 

anything