Hey people starting my first mod. Got a few $100 saved up and gonna go buy some tools. Now I live in Australia so everything you can get I might not. Anyway I'm looking to do a scratch build and wondered what most people use. I already have a drill and most non power tools. I was thinking a dremel 300 with a attachment pack and the drill press attachment (only to save money and I'm only drilling alu) and a jigsaw. Any other power tools I need? Thanks
Find a non-branded rotary tool. You might find the 'Fuller' brand rotary tool over there as we have it here in NZ. Awesome and no issues throughout the build of Project Aurora. A steady hand will save you needing a drill press stand. Jigsaw will be good for longer cuts. Maybe invest in an orbital sander if your case has decent size panels. Anything you can use a powertool you can probably do by hand if you do need a tool for a small job - I cut half of the cuts in project Aurora with a handheld 'junior' hacksaw!
Thanks. I have no problem paying a bit more for a proven brand name tool. I'm not really on a tiny budget or anything. I do not really have a steady hand so a drill press might be better plus I can aim it better. Nothing on it is really small so power tools will be needed so I dont have to spend years building it. What dremel should I get a 300 or 400? I actually find it easier to cut detail with a jigsaw than a hacksaw for some reason and can cut closer to my line. I also need a bending thingamee (forget the name). Oh and I can get sanders way cheap (yay) coz my brother owns a paint shop. Also yay because I don't need a spray gun. Thanks.
lol I'm on a tiny budget usually. I only needed a hacksaw as my father's jigsaw was broken. Faster (to a point) usually means more accurate for me XD
Yer I;m the type of person to save and just start with the best thing. Anyway I think I'm going to get a dremel 300 and a decent jigsaw with some accesories for each. I might get a tap kit as well. Anything I need to make a big case accurately and what would be best for cutting up sheet metal very very accurately.
Jigsaw with 21TPI blades 2" by 2" lumber and C-clamps to make a fence for your jigsaw Files (flat, round and half-round) Needle files (flat, round, half-round and triangle) Tap set (very important for a scratch build) Pop rivet gun Power drill Cobalt drill bits Engineer's square Steel rulers Vernier callipers Vice with aluminium angle over the jaws I find a drill press indispensable, but it's very pricey. A bending brake is also an expensive addition to your tool collection; see if you can use clamps, a wooden jig and a rubber mallet instead. Edit: I didn't think to include a Dremel in my list of tools. It's handy to have, but it's better to use a tool more suited to the job. Still, a Dremel is a quick way of doing small amounts of sanding, grinding, polishing and cutting but it's not like a sanding block, a file, elbow grease or a coping saw wouldn't work.
I've spent about $2000 on tools alone and I still haven't got a drill press. What tools you need depends on what you want to do.
A Dremel-style grinder can be used for lots of jobs. A drill press allows drilling perpendicular holes; a drill press with an X-Y vise allows drilling perfectly-placed holes. I'm not real sure I'd spend the money for a Dremel-type drill press, as a Dremel can't hold bits that are very big.... A cheap tabletop drill press should at least handle making 5-6mm holes in aluminum. Dremel drill presses are great for drilling the tiny holes in electronic circuit boards, but the drill sizes are so tiny that they're not good for much else that I've ever needed. A small c-clamp type bending brake is not real expensive, but then it depends on how often you'll use it. If you want to do plastic cases, a metal bender may not help you much. For plastic--a heat gun might be useful, and doesn't cost a whole lot. ~
Dads business has a hydraulic brake press. Score. Here's my list of tools to buy tommorow: dremel 300 with acces. Jigsaw with acces. Tabletop drill press tap kit digital vernier caliper safety gear clamps and misc. Anything else I need? Thanks.
Pack of sandpaper, mouse sander, car body filler, coutersinking bit, hole saw set, step bit, scroll saw or coping saw. Various hammers (not just claw, but ball-peen and a rubber mallet). Honestly, the tools you need will vary wildly depending on what jobs you want to do. If anything I would strongly suggest a rivet gun. It's cheap but very useful. And the Engineer's Square - your 90* angles probably won'#t be square if you don't get one. Oh, and a can of machine lubricant (Tap-tec or something) and a can of WD-40 for cleaning. (I'm also glad you mentioned safety gear - safety specs have saved my eyesight a couple of times). Vinyl/Nitryl gloves are good to protect your skin from metal/dust particles, oil etc while still being safe to work with machinery.
Lol get most of that from my brothers shop or already own. Also we but crc in bulk so yay again. We should have a square and we do have a rivet gun but I will probably screw more in. Isn't a coping saw for wood? The metal ones a hacksaw which I have already. I'm probably wrong though. Btw what's a scroll saw never heard of it. Hard to google on a phone to.
Coping saws are for cutting intricate designs, curves, etc whereas a hacksaw can only really do straight lines. It's the blade that determines what material it can be used for - stick a 20TPI blade on it and it'll go through aluminium without much difficulty. A scroll saw is just the power tool version of a coping saw. It's sometimes called a fret saw in other countries, I think. Oh, and make sure you have cobalt or HSS drill bits for working with metal.
Oh. I used one at school and found a jigsaw easier to do it with. That was on ply but still. We have most drill bits and some hole saws and stuff for alu. I'll probably just get a decent brand kit of bits. Dads taking me so he knows more than me and probably the people working there lol. Thanks for your help. Also what the tool to make a thread on something. So the opposite to a tap. custom standoffs Cheesecake lol.
Ed/capn, the fineness on that blade/image makes me think of a jewellers piercing saw (4 - 8/0) like this which Mach used (shameless plug of another persons build); to me a coping saw has a bigger blade sort of a skinny junior hacksaw but for wood, I've never used a coping saw on metal myself, only on mdf, ply, or hardwood. Coping-saw/jewellers-piercing-saw are probably the exact same thing, I've probably just been living in a cave all my life. One can easily use a piercing saw to cut to within.1/.05mm accuracy, it's just a matter or practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice... capn, the fret-saw I used at uni was thinner than a band-saw; could cut curves of, about, 50-60mm radius, that sound about right? Another name for it (that "it" being what I used) is "reciprocating-saw?" So many names, so little time. Motas, if memory serves, the scale of the build you're planning, you'll want to think in terms of structure+cladding+services, the structure will be what holds together your build (off the top of my head think 12mm Al bar), the cladding will be what's mostly visible (1.5-2.5mm Al sheet) and the services your LC+MoBo/Gpu/etc. (the guts of your system) Your structure will be the basis of what holds everything together/upright, it needs to be robust and versatile, the joy of Al is that it's fairly easy to pop holes in where you need them, when you need them, the problem with Al is it's brittleness and tendency to work harden. Your cladding (alu sheet) will have to be very precisely cut if you want it to look sharp, think table saw, band saw+table, water jet, or laser cutter. You'll struggle to get .5mm accuracy on the length of cuts you were talking about previously, you'll have to make jigs, and go to a lot of effort with your prep and get every cut perfect every time. Not saying it isn't possible just look at the work Spotswood produces! Your services will have to be contained by your cladding and held up by your structure; 2x120.3 rads wasn't it? Have you compared the weights of various products (including the live load {that's the water, 1kg/l}) and checked out how many bag's of sugar that is (easy way of working Kg's, buy 1 bar of what you think you'll use for your structure, hang -howevermany bags of sugar- off it, and see what happens, will it break, will it bow, will it survive. It's crude but it's a real life test, rather than risking dropping a decimal point in load/thinness/gyration calculations, that can end in structural failure or excess mass. p.s. I'm only being/have-been hyper-critical because I want to see your build finished, the idea of it fascinates me, and I want it to be as perfect as you do. Regards, Alex.
Yep big case. 450x450mm. I plan to use 3mm alu sheet and alu tube to hold what's needed up. The rad support will be thicker and maybe something a bit stronger. I am getting the more complicated parts laser cut. I'll see if I can buy the alu in the right size and just do the smaller simpler cuts by hand. If need be I will buy an extra piece of alu if I stuff up badly just to keep it good. Thts a good idea testing the weight. 5mm alu should hold up two rads if it's built right. I'll see what they have there for cutting sheet. Thanks.
