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Posted by: swizz Nov 27 2014, 11:31 AM

Anyone have a good source?
Need a sluice box fabbed, no flare... 40" long, 7" wide, and 3" tall sides. Straight forward and simple, no holes... just the aluminum chute. Looking to build a stream sluice from my leftover GH matting and just need a box.
Heckler Fab is nice but too expensive at about $80 plus shipping for their standard diy box sizes, and I would have to request this size which might even cost more from them.
Ebay offerings are about half of that but I will NOT deal with ebay ever again.
Any Colorado sources I should be checking out... or other sources I'm not thinking of? I'd buy the material and do it myself but I don't have a brake to bend aluminum.
Thanks!

Posted by: ColoradoProspector Nov 27 2014, 04:02 PM

Yep Swizz I do have a suggestion. I think Tom (Scratches neighbor and fellow club member) can help with the brake tool I think. He's got some metal working tools and said he'd love to help club members with projects if needed. May have to get the aluminum sheet but if he's got a brake over there you'd be jammin' with jelly!
Might send him a pm and see.

If that isn't possible or Tom has no brake, then you could use a local metal/welding shop. They'd have a source for the sheet as well as the brake on hand. No idea on costs but I'd bet the $80 tag could be beat.

Posted by: swizz Nov 28 2014, 10:00 AM

Thanks!
I found an aluminum supplier online and can get a custom size sheet (.080 thick, 5052 alum) for about $37 plus shipping. Sheet would be 13" X 40".
Still need a bender though if I order that. I may inquire with the sheet metal shop over in Granby. I did some work on their blg last year so I'm not a stranger with the owner there.

Posted by: EMac Dec 2 2014, 05:22 PM

A little slow to this thread...sorry. If you have a roofing or AC company (duct work) nearby, I recommend you touch base with them. They can probably cut a bigger sheet too which could save you buying custom.

Last year I built a rain gutter sluice and needed a small box like you're describing; I used a plastic, corrugated drain pipe cut in half and needed support since it was pretty flimsy. The lengths were comparable, but mine was only 4" wide. I bought a big sheet of metal at Home Depot and talked with the roofing guys in the building next door. I offered money and beer, but they declined and had the cuts and bends done to my spec in about 15 minutes.

The project turned out crappy and I used it once, but the learning experience was good. If you saw my workmanship, you'd better understand why I'm in awe of your talents. The C I got in junior high shop class was most likely the teacher taking pity on me.

Posted by: swizz Dec 2 2014, 05:45 PM

Thanks! I haven't purchased any aluminum yet but I like your idea of visiting the roofing company up here. I know they have a huge shop with various brakes.

Posted by: Coalbunny Dec 2 2014, 09:21 PM

I need to find a fabicator I can use. I have a design I came up with from years back, and no fabs would touch it. The biggest excuse was patent law, but in my searching I have yet to this day find any patent that covers it.

Posted by: EMac Dec 4 2014, 03:26 PM

I'm curious if they balked at the patent law due to worrying about violating someone else's intellectual property (IP), not being able to keep/utilize your IP in the future or that you haven't protected your IP yet?

Rapid prototyping is fairly ubiquitous, so it has me wondering about the fabs' rationale. A quick search for 'rapid prototyping' (without the apostrophes) brings up a number of options.

If it's something you want to market eventually, you may want to protect your IP before showing your designs to a production house (non-disclosure/confidentiality agreements, good documentation practices in a dated/signed/acknowledged lab notebook, etc.). If you're not looking to turn a profit, then perhaps it's not a big deal, but don't be surprised if you see your designs out there for sale by someone else.

A personal story: I worked for about 3 years with a supplier of ours that produces a relatively cheap accessory used for surgeries utilizing our primary, revenue-producing products. Since it's just a cheap accessory to us (really it's something hospitals need, so we stock them for customer service reasons to keep them happy), we didn't go through the hoops to protect the designs that WE created. The supplier took our designs and submitted for patent. They now hold the patent for these items since they took the necessary steps to protect the IP, and there's nothing we can do about it. This is from our staff patent attorneys who work specifically on protecting our IP.

Posted by: Coalbunny Dec 5 2014, 07:55 PM

I had it protected using the poor man method back in the 80's. Since then I have seen similar designs on the market, but not specifically mine.