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Old 03-19-2019, 05:15 PM
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heinke heinke is offline
MetalShaper of the Month Jan 2018
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Prescott, AZ
Posts: 487
Post Station buck progress

I've been able to make good progress on the station buck even though I haven't had much time to focus on it. Getting the Ferrari 250 GTO on the road has been the focus of my garage time recently.

For the buck stations, I decided to go Baltic Birch for the plywood. I was able to buy 4' by 8' sheets in 12mm (.472") thickness for $40 a sheet at a local hardwood wholesaler. The plywood is 9 ply in BB/BB surface quality. It took 13 sheets for all the buck stations. I was quoted as high as $52 a sheet at other places.

I investigated CNC laser and CNC router services for the cutting. I went with CNC router as it cost $1,420 versus quotes of $2,000 and $2,500 for CNC laser. These are SF Bay area prices, I would hope that something like this is cheaper outside of CA.

Here's what the station buck looks like when it got home.



I probably won't get a chance to assemble it for a couple of weeks. In addition, the hammer forms for the front, rear, headlight, and hood openings still are only in digital form. I have found someone to do those but it's still a work in progress.

So here's my observations on the station pieces.
  • The edges are sharp and smooth with no visible splintering. I was worried the CNC router wouldn't provide smooth edges but that worry turned out to be a non-issue.
  • The slotted pieces I tried to fit together, fit snugly with a couple of bumps from the heel of my hand. They certainly aren't loose fitting and may need a rubber hammer for assembly. If too tight, I may need to hit the plywood surface lightly with a belt sander. The slots are .472 and plywood is .472 for the most part. The plywood has some thickness variance where it can be up to a couple of thousands of an inch thicker in places.
  • The slots have rounded corners because the router bit can't cut a square corner. The CNC shop warned me about this and offered to alter the CAD files to add a "dog bone" at the slot ends. At $75/hour to have the 100+ slot ends modified in the CAD file, I opted not to have that done. I can square out the slot ends with a hand file or use a hand router to round over the slot ends on the opposing pieces. I need to round over the edges on buck stations for angled body sections anyway, so hitting the slot ends while I'm at it isn't a big deal.
  • There's lots of pieces and assembly will be like a big jigsaw puzzle. They are all numbered so hopefully that makes it easier to sort out.

More updates to come with progress...
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