Roll Control Mount and Electric Fuel Pump - Making Little Stuff For Next To Nothing

Clamping, Cutting, and Drilling
The next small dilemma you'll be faced with is how to hold the aluminum secure while you're cutting it. Clamping the sheet in a vise will ruin the surface. Besides, the orientation of the aluminum in a vise isn't conducive to cutting it either. Our solution is backyard typical. We simply clamp the aluminum sheet to the edge of a workbench. In order to avoid marring the aluminum surface, a 1x4- or 2x4-inch board is used between the aluminum and the clamp(s).

You're ready to cut the aluminum sheet. We don't use anything exotic, nothing more than a jigsaw with an aluminum cutting blade. Blades for aluminum usually have larger teeth in order to remove chips and smaller particles. If cutting goes very slowly, you'll often find the aluminum chips are choking the blade. The use of cutting fluid often helps.

When performing the actual cut, we typically consider this a rough cut. The cut is made with a bit of room for error. It's easier to make the piece smaller, but you sure can't add material, at least not easily.

Once rough-cut, we use a center punch to mark the respective holes (sharp prick punch first, center punch second). Drilling holes isn't a one-step process either. Here's why: When you drill a hole, there's no question you want the hole in the exact spot you place the bit. Typically, the drill bit will wander off that location. In order to keep the drill bit in one spot, use a center punch to dimple the metal at the drill point.

If you drill the hole to the final size in one pass it will be sloppy. Basically, the pieces of metal shavings rattle around during the drilling process and actually enlarge the hole. To stop this problem, always drill the hole undersize so that only a slight amount of metal is actually removed during the final drilling.

How big are holes in relation to drill sizes? The following chart depicts drill sizes: