Aluminum Sheet Stock - 21 gage available?

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Originally Posted By: NJC
!What's the final compressed thickness?


Dunno - I recycled all the old ones and don't feel like yanking a head to check. It mashes pretty good.
 
Strange definition - basically below 1/3" is foil?....wow. In my lifetime we called in the realm of .032" "sheet metal", maybe below that or .020" and under foil...

T6 should have some strength to it, but it still is Al.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6061_aluminum

That said, how thick was that material in your picts?

Ideally pure aluminum would work best for this head gasket.
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo
Strange definition - basically below 1/3" is foil?....wow. In my lifetime we called in the realm of .032" "sheet metal", maybe below that or .020" and under foil...

That was obviously a typo on my part. They call anything they offer under 0.032" "foil."

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That said, how thick was that material in your picts?

0.028"
 
It was a 4"x10" sheet from the K&S display at my local hobby shop. I've had it for a while, so I don't know the current price. Expect to pay $5 or more per sheet by now.
 
The thinnest K&S alu sheet I find online is 0.030" (available from the UK). The thinnest from a US source is 0.032."

My sheet is definitely 0.028," but I've had it for a few years. I checked thrice with my calipers. There is a good chance they don't offer this size anymore. K&S has discontinued many of their "Special Shapes" line due to lack of demand, which in turn is due to high prices.
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo
Well it's available....thanks.


You see the 0.028" sheet listed? Maybe I'm not digging in the right spot. I'm still hungover from a bad 72 hour bug. Make sure that alu is soft enough as gasket material before buying thousand sheets.
 
From my days at the sheet metal shop, most stock is on the thin side. You could probably figure stock that thin to be .001" or so thinner than spec.

If you are talking about moving a lot of product, I would think you would be able to get sheets made to the spec's you want.

Are you going to laser or punch the parts?
 
Originally Posted By: Pablo
Lazer cut. But alas not enough for a mill run!

Mori - I don't see it either, I just wrongly assumed since you got it, naturally it would be available.


I usually wrongly assume something I once bought must still be available. It's quite frustrating. You really don't want to bother with single alu sheets. You need a bulk roll.
 
What's alu??? I dont think IUPAC would be happy with that
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
What's alu? I don't think IUPAC would be happy with that.
wink.gif



It's a common abbreviation for aluminium (US: aluminum), perfessor. Usually it's capitalized (ALU), but seeing how you don't manage perfection, I feel it's okay if stick with lower case letters. If I were to call it Al, Al would start showing up.

ALU
 
You might be able to have a sheet fly cut on a CNC for not much money. They are only taking a few thou of Al so they should be able to cut it fairly quickly with a large cutter.

You also MIGHT be able to pass it through a wide belt sander to accomplish the same thing. We did this occasionally with steel sheets but I don't think we did it with Al (we mostly dealt with steel). Might clog the paper though.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
What's alu??? I dont think IUPAC would be happy with that
wink.gif




Everyone who cares if the IUPAC is happy, raise your hand.
grin2.gif
 
What sort of engine? Diesel engines often have headgaskets of variable thickness.The thickness of the gasket is calculated by the piston protrusion from block face.There is not a lot in it,so they must be able to finish to whatever thickness is required.
 
Originally Posted By: XS650
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
What's alu??? I dont think IUPAC would be happy with that
wink.gif




Everyone who cares if the IUPAC is happy, raise your hand.
grin2.gif



I raised a part of my hand...
 
Pablo, there is another way to look at your head gasket material problem. Considering Chinese engine tolerances, an extra 0.004 inch of gasket thickness would have relatively no effect.

Have you calculated how much it would reduce the compression ratio and thought about whether it matters or not?

as another poster said, aluminum producers tend to deliver on the small side of the spec. They make more money that way.

A typical thickness spec is 0.032 +/- 0.0025. More often that not, the actual delivered product I have seen was in the lower 1/2 of the spec. Material that was thinner than spec was rare, maybe because the supplier knew they would get the opportunity pick it up at their expense. They must have sent the stuff they knew we wouldn't accept to the place Tempest worked at.
 
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