making a custom flatbed truck side rail for a friend

   / making a custom flatbed truck side rail for a friend #31  
I usually do this kind of work in warmer weather, and like leaving roll up door open. Not an option lately. Make up air is a good idea. I have added heated make up air and even swamp cooler make up air in restaurants. Those hoods draw out a lot of heat and cool

If you had a pipe to supply most of the air to the bottom of the table could you mostly circulate outside air without disturbing much shop air?
 
   / making a custom flatbed truck side rail for a friend
  • Thread Starter
#32  
I was just thinking when i saw that: one quick move to steer clear of an unattending car on a narrow road would send loose tools through the sides, bending your christmas trees and bears.
Personally i would bolt some aluminium panels behind it, as it doesnt rust when it gets scratched...
As I mentioned before. There are inside panels that will be solid, colored to match the light truck trim, that will be installed behind the cut out panels. There out being powder coated right now.
 
   / making a custom flatbed truck side rail for a friend #33  
Just be sure to show us how it looks when it is finished
 
   / making a custom flatbed truck side rail for a friend #35  
Are any of those designs pre programmed into your machine?
I have a nice Hypertherm and can add a "machine torch", but I'm not *confident in my ability computer wise.
*AT ALL:laughing:
 
   / making a custom flatbed truck side rail for a friend
  • Thread Starter
#36  
Na, my wife does the actual art work on coral draw. Than I run it thru a few programs. The first is to convert her drawings to a format that another program called Vextractor can work with. That program converts all artwork to an exterior outline. Than I import that into a program called EnRoute6 which I have automatically programmed into setting all the interior and exterior pierce locations and sequences for the plasma cutter. Enroute is an expensive but very powerful program that can even nest multiple cut designs so I use less steel plate when cutting.

I wish it was easy, but I can spend more time designing the artwork than actually making the piece.

Now if its something simple like the time I needed a 30 inch round disk with a 1” center hole for my fence unroller, I can get the art done and out to the plasma table in about 5 minutes. If its something like these racks, it’s several hours of work.
 
   / making a custom flatbed truck side rail for a friend #37  
That's what I thought, although it might take me several days (if I could do it at all)
Looking forward to seeing the finished project :thumbsup:
 
 
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