Clintonmagus has the right idea and being in the bay area a good sheet metal shop should not be hard to find.
How to cut a slot in sheet metal mail box.
You should be fine.
Consider these important design tips when creating holes and slots in sheet metal parts.
Mark the shape and size of the slot you want to cut in the sheet metal using the marker.
Tin snips are primarily used for cutting thin sheet metal like tin aluminum brass and thin gauge stainless steel.
Make sure you are using a drill bit for metal surfaces and always select a drill bit that is slightly smaller than the mark.
Use layout dye and an awl to make sure your cuts are true.
If it s sufficiently far away from the jaw then it s a very simple cut.
A good specialty sheet metal shop will have a punch that is 1 8 by 1 in stock.
Drill two holes one for each end of your slot to finish the cut cleanly.
Use the dremel with the fibre cut off wheel to cut your slot.
Today we are going to look at creating a slot in a sheet metal cylinder.
As you would expect there are several ways to accomplish this in solidworks.
The first way is very simple i am just going to create a slot on a plane and cut through the part.
You will need to cut the ends to both sides of your piece since the tool and shaft get in the way of going all the way down.
If the slot is close to the part edge make a throwaway aluminum jaw to secure in the solid jaw and cut through into that.
If you want to do it yourself drill holes for the ends of the slot and cut the space inbetween with a sabre jig saw that has a metal cutting blade3.
If you re cutting 125 steel with a 0625 em try cutting no deeper than 0313 per pass.
More information on this tech tip available at.
I will show you a couple common ways to accomplish this task.