fallenauthority
15+ Year Contributor
- 692
- 11
- Oct 14, 2004
-
La Plata,
Maryland
Just picked up an Eastwood Tig200 a couple weeks ago, been practicing welding on some spare aluminum plates I had laying around. I want to start playing around with making catch cans and coolant tanks. I plan to start with aluminum sheets and cut them down to size for the walls of the cans however, I dont know what gauge aluminum would work well for catch cans and coolant tanks. Now one thing to note is the coolant tanks I will be planning to eventually make will be used in a pressurized application, they arent going to just be catch tanks they will be a degas bottle that is part of the pressurized cooling system. So whatever I use will need to withstand 16ish PSI without ballooning.
This brings another question, I figured I could use a sheet metal brake/shear to do the cutting and any bending I would need however the shears I have seen are only able to cut 20 gauge, now I dont know if they will handle thicker gauge if it is aluminum. Any input or guidance will be appreciated. Thanks guys!
This brings another question, I figured I could use a sheet metal brake/shear to do the cutting and any bending I would need however the shears I have seen are only able to cut 20 gauge, now I dont know if they will handle thicker gauge if it is aluminum. Any input or guidance will be appreciated. Thanks guys!