Metal cutting?

[icowden]

HI All,

As you may be aware from another thread I have got myself a tow bar bike carrier. I asked the lease company for a letter so that I could get a duplicate rear plate for the back of the carrier and they were kind enough to just post me a full set of aluminium plates.

The drawback is that they are the type of plate that has a lip at the bottom to advertise the lease company. The lip is too big to fit in the plate holder.
My first thought is to somehow file down the lip to take off about 5mm. The question is how?

The alternative is to drill some holes and bolt the plate to the holder although it will look a bit ugly at the bottom. This is obviously the easy option as I just need to mark the holes and get an hss drill bit and then some appropriate bolts.

Any thoughts folks?

 

[Ridgeway]

Aluminium ? I put that through a circular saw, just wear some safety specs. I often cut up to 3mm with a regular (multipurpose) blade.

 

[CXRAndy]

Band saw would go through that like butter. Also nice neat cut line.

 

[sevenfourate]

4 1/2” Angle grinder with a 1mm slitting disc would also work.

Could use a straight edge of some sort as a guide to achieve a nice cut line. And debur edges with a file afterwards…..

Good luck however you tackle it !

 

[Jameshow]

Hacksaw will do it easily.

Use some decent blades like eclipse or Bahco.

 

[presta]

Tinsnips.

 

[slowmotion]

How thick is the plate?

 

[icowden]

Tinsnips.

Tin snips I have got. It's just going to be horribly uneven by the time I have finished mangling it.
Circular saw scares me too much. I might try it. Don't have a band saw. Haven't seen one of those since about 1988 at school!
The hacksaw would be worth a go, although again my straight line skills are lacking.

 

[icowden]

How thick is the plate?

I'd say about a millimetre.

 

[slowmotion]

I'd say about a millimetre.

I wouldn't try that on a circular saw. It's too thin and the plate will distort and bind on the blade leading to all manner of (sudden) horribleness. I would use a jigsaw with a fine tooth aluminium blade. Bosch do a wide range.

 

[icowden]

I wouldn't try that on a circular saw. It's too thin and the plate will distort and bind on the blade leading to all manner of (sudden) horribleness. I would use a jigsaw with a fine tooth aluminium blade. Bosch do a wide range.

That's a good thought. Plus the jigsaw has a straight line guide. Might have to dust it off...

 

[chris667]

The hacksaw would be worth a go, although again my straight line skills are lacking.

Get two g-clamps and clamp a piece of wood across the line you want to cut. Cut alongside the wood, and hey presto.

 

[slowmotion]

If you try the jigsaw, something like a Bosch T118G blade should work. It's got a very fine tooth pitch.

 

[PeteXXX]

Would it be possible to adapt the plate holder rather than risk mangling the aluminium number plate supplied?

 

[cyberknight]

check with the lease company in case they get snotty first , or cover your behind .