Making Louvers

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Glenn Brooks
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Location: Woodinville, Washington

Making Louvers

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Thinking about making some sheet metal louvered panels for my center cab rebuild. Wondering if it would work to make the punching die out of mild steel?

Really don’t want to mess with sourcing tool steel and hardening, etc, if it can be avoided.

Thanks,
Glenn
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Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Bob D.
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Re: Making Louvers

Post by Bob D. »

Are your panels steel or aluminum? What gauge? Do you expect to punch the louver slit out or precut the slits and then form the louver? How many louvers? A dozen or a thousand?
I have had good success with mild steel for the punch and die. If your press has no slop in the arbor you can punch and form in one step. I have found it easier to layout and precut the slits first and then form the louver. I haven't worked steel panels, only aluminum.
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Glenn Brooks
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Re: Making Louvers

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Thanks Bob,

My first choice is sheet metal, however I do have some old Highway sign aluminum material available. I would need to do about 40 to 60 individual louvers, 5 to 7 each panel. And I have eight panels. I want to make these to scale so I’m thinking each would be 6” inches long and maybe 5/8” to three-quarter inch tall.

The panels would be used as side access doors for the hood ends of a 1/3 scale center cab (GE 44 tonner) road switcher.

I maybe could pre cut the slits. What I have available are slitting saws mounted in a Burke horizontal mill. Not sure if the mill offers enuf clearance to run 12” wide panels along the table…

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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liveaboard
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Re: Making Louvers

Post by liveaboard »

I made an MS die for louvers in aluminum sheet.
I wanted mine to look different, so I made them curved.
It worked well and we stamped out the sheet on a flypress.

I left the die at the fabrication shop in rural India where I was doing the work. The owner said no one else would ever want to use it.
A year later I flew in there again and on the drive from the airport I saw a little 3-wheel cargo rickshaw with the cargo box stamped with my curved louvers.

Yes, mild steel works fine. For aluminum.
Bob D.
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Re: Making Louvers

Post by Bob D. »

My go to for making the slits is my plasma cutter. Made up a slotted guide for the tip on the Bridgeport. That lets me index the cutting guide and keep everything spaced nice. Before getting that fancy I used a cutoff wheel in an air tool to cut the slits. Being careful, that works well. It is much easier tooling wise to precut the slits.
3/4" Juliet II 0-4-0
3/4" Purinton Mogul "Pogo"
3/4" Hall Class 10 wheeler
3/4" Evans Caribou/Buffalo 2-8-0
3/4" Sweet Violet 0-4-0
3/4" Hunslet 4-6-0
3/4" Kozo A3. Delayed construction project

1 1/2" A5 Camelback 0-4-0
Bob D.
Posts: 381
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2012 10:43 pm
Location: Saco, ME. USA

Re: Making Louvers

Post by Bob D. »

A few pics.
8D1E48F5-EBB9-41D9-8E7B-52B1981C5122.jpeg
Male die fits to the arbor of the press, held on with setscrews.
662A3270-2B38-4A5A-8BFB-0CBCA406DC21.jpeg
Female die. Die plate is atop a steel box filled with 1/2” rubber. This eliminates having to make a female cavity.
18379E5C-24FF-4130-A265-FBB0A668FF61.jpeg
Some louvers on my freelanced critter.
8AD256D8-58E7-458E-AEC5-D2CA97494C67.jpeg
3/4" Juliet II 0-4-0
3/4" Purinton Mogul "Pogo"
3/4" Hall Class 10 wheeler
3/4" Evans Caribou/Buffalo 2-8-0
3/4" Sweet Violet 0-4-0
3/4" Hunslet 4-6-0
3/4" Kozo A3. Delayed construction project

1 1/2" A5 Camelback 0-4-0
Rich_Carlstedt
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Re: Making Louvers

Post by Rich_Carlstedt »

I don't have a picture of my Louver die, but I made the punch by using a Dowel Pin
Using a abrasive wheel, I removed 90 degree ( viewed endwise ) of the pin while keeping it cool with ice cubes.
I assume you could use drill rod as well and then HT the drill rod. The dowel made a great louver form !
I used mild steel milled out for the die plate , and made aluminum louvers.
For steel , you would need a hardened die plate UNLESS you slit the louver bottom first .
As a help, put locator pins ( removable) on the die plate to assist proper spacing

Rich
Glenn Brooks
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Re: Making Louvers

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Thanks all, for the advise and photos. I kind of took the low road and ended up repurposing some surplus galvanized louvered sheets, I forgot I had stacked up behind my workbench in the shop. Cut them down to roughly 8x 12” rectangles, and fitted to a small channel iron frame, so they mount recessed in the front ends - each end, as this is a center cab style loco.

Should anyone be researching louvers in the future, here is a pretty useful you tube video I was studying, it shows the steps for fabing up a DIY louvers press.

https://youtu.be/1f-VwmwKZIk

Also, discovered a good trick in an on line hot rod site- use an old piece of spring steel from a cast off car suspension. The steel is hardened and cuts like butter. One DIY guy suggested making the louver die out of mild steel and facing the cutting edge with the spring steel piece. Also grinding an edge on it to punch the slit. Another guy just cuts and grinds the whole die out of a large bit of spring.

By sure coincidence my boy replaced his original tired old MGB suspension with new springs a month ago. So gave me the old spring assemblies. I now have enuf spring steel for several lifetimes of louver die making...haha haha.

Here’s A pic or two of the louvers I ended up with, recently mounted in my yard goat rebuild. Rustic, as it’s still a few weeks away from sand blasting and new paint... (the full thread is up in the build page- “GN 44 ton Center Cab”)
0FF74E7D-989D-40B4-8D97-5A3B458DC9AA.jpeg
1B045FAE-AA4B-4EE5-BC09-B9EED03BA7EB.jpeg

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
kapullen
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Re: Making Louvers

Post by kapullen »

I wrote a description of making a louver punch
On Discover Live Steam about 15 years ago using an old arbor press, spade drill, and a vise.

Search "Discover Live Steam Louver Punch"

Software won't let me copy and paste the link.

It is smaller than you are looking for but food for thought.

Kap
Fadal Turn, Fadal Vmc 15, Prototrak 16 x 30 Cnc Lathe, Pratt and Whitney 16 x 54 lathe, Pratt and Whitney Vertical Shaper, G & E 16" Shaper, B & O Electric turret lathe, 36" Doall band saw,
Enco B.P. Clone, Bridgeport CNC Mill, Delta 12" Surface Grinder.
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rmac
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Re: Making Louvers

Post by rmac »

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Gary Armitstead
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Re: Making Louvers

Post by Gary Armitstead »

Another suggestion "outside the box" for most home machinist's.
In my "other life" before retirement, I was a diesinker making forging dies. When I wanted to make a die for louvers, I just called Finkl Corporation (they manufacture die blocks for producing forging cavities). The nice thing about this steel is that it is already hardened all the way through the steel, not just surface hardness. BUT it is machinable and with high speed steel cutters. Should be fairly easy to contact the manufacturer to se about getting scrap die steel.

I've also used scrap spade drills, but that usually requires grinding.
Gary Armitstead
Burbank, CA
Member LALS since 1980
Member Goleta Valley Railroad Club 1980-1993
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