I’d love to dedicate a solid 2–3 days to it like a New Year’s holiday. That’s hard to pull off. The best I can manage is 1–2 hours in between other things.
This is the material I cut the other day. A shearing machine is really convenient. If the settings are dialed in right, it cuts pretty straight for bike parts.
Our workflow used to be: Level 1 is contour saw, then belt sander. Level 2 is hand shear, then belt sander. Since we started using SUS304 stainless, I’ve really felt the limitations of my hand tools.
Cutting with a contour saw is loud and leaves a rough edge.
Belt sanding causes burn marks and discoloration, and it’s hard to keep all four sides to dimension.
Drilling with my old drill bits is difficult.
Aluminum is light and easy to machine, so it’s definitely a beloved material.
But it needs surface treatment like anodizing.
And compared to steel, it needs thicker walls.
When you’re doing a lot of small-part fabrication like we do, you end up reaching for stainless steel.
With a back gauge, all your bends come out identical.
With a die, chamfering is instant, identical, and leaves no burn marks.
Drilling is done with a punch, so even tiny parts are easy to finish. Burring is a breeze.
My fabrication and machining are mostly self-taught, so when I watch a master at work, I think, “Ah, I see!” and realize that if you’re going to repeat the same task, the right tools are essential.
You can do one or two by hand, but when you get to 20 or 100, it’s not realistic.
No machinery (equipment investment needed) = more labor = higher time cost
Machinery available (no equipment investment) = less labor = lower time cost
When the same person makes something under these two different conditions, which one comes out cleaner and more reliable? That’s what I think about. We don’t do fabrication we can’t do well.
If it costs a lot, takes forever, and the finish is disappointing, nobody wins—not the worker, not the owner.
It’s really hard for customers to gauge a shop’s skill and equipment, so this is a tough issue.
That’s why Decoboco basically tells people we can’t do custom work or fabrication. Keep this in mind when you’re looking for a shop to do work for you.
So the titanium is done—well, 85% done anyway…
The second one definitely came out cleaner. There’s so much you don’t know until you build it, which means there are lots of failures along the way.
For custom work and fabrication, please reach out to a custom shop or fabrication specialist.
