Large Project, Small Machines, Get Creative

[BladesIIB]

Wanted a cleaner look when the hard top was off of our Bronco, so I finally took the time to tackle making these Aluminum Bed Rails. This was a large project for my tiny machine shop and small machines, and ended up being mostly manual with some creative milling set up moves to make it all work out.

I started with ½" aluminum plate 5" wide and shaped it with a band saw, then finished the profiles with a 72" belt grinder and files. I used a Jet JMD18 Mill Drill to drill all the holes and to cut the slots in the top. With only 20" travel on my Mill Drill, I had to cut the slots in 3 set ups. Then I had them powder coated for a nice matte black look.

Could not be happier with how these came out.

 

[sycle1]

Nice job, well done. Nice Bronco! Cheers

 

[BladesIIB]

Nice job, well done. Nice Bronco! Cheers

Thanks! Has been a lot of fun working on all the mods on the Bronco. Several of the projects have required a little tweaking in the machine shop. Just finished the suspension upgrade so should be done with mods for a while.