Moderator

[Jacin]

Hi All, I guess I have been fairly lax about sayin a few words.
With the NEW BOARD and it's various topics Marty has asked me to help Moderate the Sheet Metal Fab section. Since this is such a well behaved group I doubt I will have to do much. I just felt I get so much from this board I could certainly try to help out a wee bit.
I'm no sheet metal expert, but I do like to tinker - I look forward to learning heaps more from you guys [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif"%20alt="[/img]

[Steve_in_Mich]

Well, we lost yet another from the trade (so some may say). He's gone on for the Big Money and a Desk Job as Moderator. Congrats, Jacin.

Did you pick up the nibbler today? Got a photo to post?

[Jacin]

Steve - I picked it up and nearly froze my butt off unloading it!

I started tinkering with it - it's really pretty cool. It'll cut up to 5/32" mild steel and has both the fence and the circle cutting attachment. It is made by the "Nibbler Factory of Sweden" and is called a "Baby Nibbler" - pretty much like a 1/4 scale Pullmax.

The die holder is fully adjustable - up/down left/right in/out. Plus there is two stroke settings. Didn't measure them but one is around .030" and the other is around .120" (guessing)

I plugged it in and it went through aluminum like butter. The motor coupling is kinda funky - it's much like a LoveJoy spider type but it uses NO SET SCREWS. Just slip it over a key and go. Not sure I like that very much. I also notice shortly after turning it on that the coupling starts to make noise. I realigned it and it helped some. I took the coupling apart and the "spider" is as hard as a ROCK - I think it should be replaced.
I would like to possibly make some small "thumbnail" dies for shrinking. I also might consider making a deeper throat frame since the top and bottom head simply bolt on. That (if it ever does happen) won't happen anytime soon.

All in all I think this will be just the thing to get me fired up for a full sized one later. Until then this little baby is gonna have to do.

[Jacin]

Other side....

[Ralph_Monroe_Mi]

Looks like it will be adaptable for a lot of other tooling too. It's shape and throat is much like the Diacro 2 punch. Greg has tooled his up for the shrinking dies I sent you a picture of, as well as several louver dies and a variety of punches. Neat find

[Scott]

Jacin,it looks like you are running out of space.I have a Idea,now that you got a nibbler you probally are tired of triping over that old manual cutter you have.Just pack up that old obsolete B3 beverly shear,and send it out west.Now that you went high class you will never miss it.I could use a manual shear, because I am so poor that I can't even afford to plug my plasma in.Are you feeling sorry for me yet?

[Jacin]

Hi Ralph, Long time - how's tricks???

Yeah I am pretty excited about the Nibbler. I am envisioning "lots" of possibilities. I am really hoping to shrink with it. Now I know why these Pullmax guys get so fired up!
I stumbled across this a little while ago. I was in "tightwad" mode and didn't pull th etrigger on it. I showed it to Dave figuring he'd grab it up and take the pressure off of me. But he wasn't moving any too quick and it kept "calling me" so what's a fella to do????
So how's Greg's shrinker actually work. Have you gotten to use it much??? I recall the pics you sent of it were slightly difficult to view - could you resend (or better yet post some here) some additional pics?
How's them Ewheels coming along??? I am looking forward to seeing some progress pics if you can get time.

[Jacin]

Scott sounds like you got it pretty rough! I still "need" one of those plasma cutters as well. The nibbler will do MORE than just cut. I hope to make some "additional" tooling that will allow me to do some metalshaping with it as well. It will make a nice compliment to my Air Planishing Hammer.
Man - you're pretty good to spot my B-3 - I didn't think anyone wudda picked that out. As Ralph can attest - I have been on a "Tool Bender" for quite a while now. Keeps me broke but happy too (if that's possible). I am pretty lucky to live in a Manufacturing Hot bed (or "X" hot bed as the case may be) I can go to several used tool dealers that are within 20 minutes from my house. Pretty soon the wife's gonna HAVE to do something about this <grin>
Until then - it's tool party time!!!! That's another advantage to driving a $400 truck [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif"%20alt="[/img]

[Steve_in_Mich]

Nice looking machine. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/shocked.gif"%20alt="[/img]

I use to be of the opinion that a nibble was a machine that removed material as it cut (you know the little "c" shaped bits or pieces) but a couple years ago I bought a Berkroy bench top nibbler that is actually a power shear to my way of thinking. It has/provides shearing action without any metal removal. As Berkroy called it a nibbler and because I had this preconceived notion that they (nibblers) remove material I set out to see if somewhere along the way someone changed the round punch and die set for these shear dies. Turns out that the shear dies is all that was ever offered with this machine. The Berkroy is not as heavy duty as I would like (limit is 16 gage) so when I had the chance to buy a larger C-frame Chicago rivet machine I did thinking I could convert it to a round punch and die type nibbler. Your machine gives me another idea for mounting the business end to the C-frame.

Any comments on nibblers removing or not removing material on the cut might be inlightening or was I alone in my opinion. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/confused.gif"%20alt="[/img]

[Jacin]

Hey Steve I sure would like ot see a PIC of yours if you get a chance. I am pretty NEW to nibblers - I have seen guys convert them mostly for metalshaping - shrinking stretching - offsets things like that. The "cutter" heads are often the shearing dies like (power shear is a good description)
As for your interpretation - i guess I never gave it alot of thought either way. But I do know that it might just be a case of "common terms". Just like people referring to a "Bridgeport" instead of a "small vertical mill" - if you know what I mean. I suppose when I get down to it - I always thought of a hand nibbler as taking out the little "c" cuts. Your interpretation does make sense - I but I don't really know one way or another.

[Steve_in_Mich]

This is a Berkroy N-50 nibbler that sold on eBay some time ago. The photo was in my computer and handy - don't have to go out and take one of my newly refurbished machine. Maybe I will depending on how this looks. The next photo I post will show the opposing shearing dies and that is of my N-50.

[Steve_in_Mich]

Top die cutter is adjustable up and down plus side to side to set the engagement of the blades in the horizontal plane and clearance in the vertical plane. The first is adjusted so that the metal cannot be inserted beyond a shear point (otherwise too far open the machine would punch the plate (not cut) until something breaks and the clearance between the dies in the verticle plane is set to minimize the drag/curl of the sheet edge at the point of shear. Oops forgot to say that the bottom die is also adjustable up or down so that in its uppermost position the heel (lowest point on the bottom shear die) does not rise above the table top to facilitate smooth feeding of the material. Depth of throat for the Berkroy N-50 is 12" (cut line to frame).