Pickles Custom Metal Shop

[Disco Pickle]

rather proud of this one.  the engineer on the project needed a way to mount a 42" industrial monitor within an existing enclosure that would have a recessed (flush) profile into the enclosure and provide U.L. required fire protection to the equipment mounted inside, yet allow venting of heat to the outside of the enclosure.  This was my solution.









The cool thing is, while it was designed to be made out of 12GA steel, making it pretty damn heavy, with slight modifications to the material thickness, it could easily be made from aluminum, knocking off several pounds.  I have all of the flat patterns as well, which could easily be modified for a wooden application should a builder want to integrate it into a home installation.

We received them in Monday and they're installed and look pretty damn good.  Haven't had the chance to take any pictures yet though.

[Don Coyote]

Very nice, but how does it vent heat? Does the monitor posses one or more fans? It should definitely be made from aluminum too, and WHERE IS DA FLAT PATTERN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! j/k

[Disco Pickle]

Very nice, but how does it vent heat? Does the monitor posses one or more fans? It should definitely be made from aluminum too, and WHERE IS DA FLAT PATTERN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! j/k

The venting is natural airflow.  The louvers on the front of the door fall within the confines of the enclosure mounted on the rear of the door.  Heat from the monitor will exit the top of the louvers, drawing cold air through the bottom.  We discussed putting a fan inside, but finding one U.L. would approve was difficult, as well as the size limitations due to the sheer amount of shit mounted in the main enclosure.  I settled on this.

I had to make it out of 12GA Steel to meet U.L. 50 type 1 enclosure requirements.  I might have been able to get away with 14GA, but since it's going to be rigorously inspected by one of the fuckos from U.L., I didn't chance it.

also, delivered:







The dimension left off are dimensions to bend lines and some cutouts, only because the files are meant to be fed into a laser cutting table controller and cut automatically, then fed into a cam system for a brake press that automatically reads where the bend lines are.  I occasionally send designs to a different metal shop that works with old hardware and they always do bend calculations by hand so I have to include dimensions to brakes and directions.  This didn't go to that shop so I didn't include them.

Cool thing is, the drafts are very easily exported to basic autocad at 1:1 to allow anyone to take dimensions from the drawing, or PDF for general distribution and review by anyone without autocad.

and really, the lexan and clip system is optional for other applications.  It had to meet U.L. fire ratings so I had to include it.  Really though, you could use the guide bracket system to push the monitor up flush with the rear face of the door and do away with the clips entirely for almost any other application.

[Disco Pickle]

My next gigantic-fucking-switchgear-lineup came in from the metal shop.  It looks goooood.  This took me a week of modeling the parts in 3d, then another half a week or so of drafting in 2d.  I'm still waiting on the EE to finish the hinged control doors part list so I can lay them out. 

I believe this is going to be installed on a new ship because this is the main lineup, and we already finished the emergency swbd, and we're currently wiring up the bow thruster lineup.  We don't usually do that much work on a shipyard refit, but there's always exceptions.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I like the fact that I completely don't understand anything that you just said. I like it because it makes me feel challenged, and because it means I am in the presence of shit that is way the fuck over my head, which means I might learn something. Thank you!

[LMNO]

Which, by the way, is another reason I'm sad Kai is choosing a slow fade. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Kai will figure it out.

[Disco Pickle]

I like the fact that I completely don't understand anything that you just said. I like it because it makes me feel challenged, and because it means I am in the presence of shit that is way the fuck over my head, which means I might learn something. Thank you!

glad you like it.  I find myself learning new things every day in this field.  mostly electrical, since I'm surrounded by Electrical Engineers and have to be able to read and edit their electrical diagrams. 

I have the metal side of it pretty much down and there's not much room for innovation in electrical switchgear, but i get to be a little creative when it comes to bracing a LOT of copper bus bar to the enclosure to keep it from exploding when they supply power. 

I learned quite a bit from Kai posts, stuff I'd have likely never looked up on my own out of context.  Hopefully he'll be back.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Kai will be back. He is one of us... even my kids can see that. It's hard to find people who get it, and even though he talks about shit that's way over our heads, we still get it on one level.

[Disco Pickle]

after doing some digging into our quote files for this project and a quick google search, I discovered this switchgear will be distributing power on a brand new ferry being currently built in Panama City, and will be the primary transport to Grand Manan Island, allowing them to retire one of the older ferrys. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Manan_Island

On 10 March 2009, New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham signed a 65 million dollar contract with Brian R. D'Isernia, President of Eastern Shipbuilding Group of Panama City, Florida, for delivery of a new, larger and faster ferry capable of transporting 82 cars to be placed into service in 2011. This new ferry will become the primary year-round transport for the island, and the MS Grand Manan V will take over the summer schedule of the older MV Grand Manan, which will be retired.

I figured it had to be a pretty big boat, but I'm rarely in the loop on where these damn things go once they're built and tested.

[Disco Pickle]

Weeee, another Dredge refit for the USACE.  This time we'll be replacing the entire Generator switchgear, distribution and emergency distribution sections rather than trying to tie into the existing bus work.  That should save a lot of the problems we're having with the current dredge refit.

This took me 7 straight hours of drafting, and this is just for the quote.  I'll have to do a full 3D model with sheet metal pattern plans as well.

Also, the boss mentioned getting me to start laying out the copper bus bar in 3D and giving the shop a set of plans rather than letting them work it out themselves.

Really, we should be doing this anyway.  It's the way GE, Siemens and all of the other major manufacturers do it.  Now any fuck ups become mine.    But I am really looking forward to having that much responsibility on my shoulders.