Small improvement to the Warco MiniFormit

This post isn't really about modelling but about a small item that I made on the mill today to improve my MiniFormit Guillotine/rollers.

When it came it had a really short infeed guide for the Guillotine which made it really difficult to cut pieces of sheet square. Before we moved I made a replacement from a small offcut strip of aluminium profile bought from B&Q but the problem with it was that it was produced by rolling and so none of the edges were really square and so sheet of the thicknesses we tend to use for model making slid under the bottom edge, again making it very difficult to cut square. I ultimately got around this by having a flat stainless square permanently clamped to the guillotine's table.

Fast forward to yesterday and I went along to Wickes and bought a metre length of mild steel bar 4mmx 35mm this cost just under £10 but was infinitely cheaper than buying from the likes of eBay where the postage/fees etc. put short pieces into similar price brackets.
The Wickes offering is also rolled so needed the rounded edges squaring up on all six faces with the mill.

I now have a guide that is square to the table and flush so that thin sheet won't slip under it when lining up for cutting.







I could have made it from much smaller material but I reasoned that buying the size that I did will allow me to make smaller items should I need it whereas if I had bought a small gauge I couldn't have made bigger items from it. The metre length should last me a few years making little bits and pieces as I need them.

 

Well it's been a while since I had anything to say on this subject but thought my recent endeavours with it worth a mention.


Since buying this back before I moved house I have mostly used the guillotine function, for cutting sheet brass or nickel and on occasions aluminium sheet recovered from shaving foam cans. I have also rarely used the rolling bars although having a similar set of rollers that are independant really does make it only used when I cannot be bothered to lift the rolling bars onto my workbench (they live underneath)


As sold the bumph claims that it will cut up to 1mm in steel and there is a bending brake function which apart from slipping a piece of crap sheet in as a test not long after buying it, I haven't used it since or in any kind of 'real' situation.


Fast forward to the last few weeks. Knowing that the fitting of a DRO to may lathe would require the removal and modification of the swarf shield at the back of the lathe I bought in a couple of pieces of 1mm x 150mm x 500m (6" x 18") sheet steel. I chose the size based on the measurements taken from the existing swarf shield and knew that one of the pieces would just fit along the bottom of the shield to effectively push it 150mm further back. The other piece was planned for filling in any gaps left by the way that the existing shield had been cut out to fit around features on the back of the lathe.


Having finished fitting the Digital Readout scales to the lathe (to be reported in more detail in the relevant thread), my thoughts turned to the swarf shield. I had already drilled one of the pieces and bolted it to some aluminium angle to extend the bottom plate and then needed to fill in the gaps at the chuck end.


I measured the biggest gap which extended from the upper portion of the original shield forward to the rear of the lathe and then it required a right angle bend to fill the remaining gap just behind the chuck. I didn't really fancy hacksawing it off so I decided to see if the manufacturers claim of it cutting 1mm sheet steel was true. I am pleased to say that it is.


Albeit, that I foolishly left some big bolts at the side of the guillotine and as the metal cut through. The force I was having to apply, sent the handle downwards at speed, trapping one of my fingers between the handle and one or more of the bolts. It made my eyes water a little but no real harm done.


Next I tried out the folding brake and again I was really pleased with the outcome. The first fold was relatively easy, but getting the bent sheet back out took a bit of jiggling.


For the last infill piece, I needed a much smaller piece which had a double bend. Cutting the smaller strip off was much easier and making the first bend was quite simple. But there wasn't enough clearance for the bent material to feed into position for the second bend. I got around this by removing the anvil for the guillotine section which required unscrewing four caps screws. Two for the guide strip and the others actually holding the anvil in position.





As an aside I have also used the guillotine to cut several pieces of an old aluminium number plate that had fallen off a vehicle and some kind person had tucked it in a fence (I suppose in the hope that the the person who lost it might see it and recover it). After seeing it tucked in the fence for a couple of years, I got fed up of looking it and decided to bin it. It was only as I was about to put it in the litter bin, that I realised that it was aluminium rather than plastic and would be useful as material at some point. During my fitting and refitting of scales to both lathe and mill I have used it to make several spacers. Although much thicker than 1mm, being aluminium, it cuts quite easily with the guillotine.