First Thing is to Roll out the Sheet and Mark the initial cut lines. The best size sheet to use for this order is 48″ wide and our Shear is only 36″ wide. So we will “rough cut” the sheet so that we can later square up the blanks.

Squaring up the raw blanks

The raw blanks are all nicely squared up and we have taken a scotch brite pad and abraded the ends that we will be marking. This is so we can clearly see our marks and not confuse them with a scratch or mill mark on the material.
We do this now because we have missed marks in the past by hitting the wrong line!

Marking the bend points.
Notice how abrading the edge lets us see our marks more clearly.

Also note the pencil sharpener. We work close on our numbers.
We work to 1/32 of an inch for most dimensions and sometimes even 1/64 of an inch on some aspects of a project.
Note also that our template has DOTS and NO DOTS. This is to help us identify Front and Back Side Markings when we mark the Blanks.

TAKE TIME TO MAKE SURE YOUR MARKS ARE ON THE $!!!!!!!!!!
ANY DEVIATIONS WILL CAUSE YOU HEADACHES LATER!!!!!

Bend #1
This operation is simple to repeat as we have done this type of bend 100’s of times in the past.
It takes two bends to accomplish. First one is about 135 degrees and the next one completes to 180 degrees.

Bend #2
Originally 90 degrees – we have now changed it to be 80 degrees as this way the bend would need no qualifying (fixing) after moving on to the 3rd bend. During Prototyping we are mostly concerned about the total shape. We may have to adjust the angle of the bends a bit plus or minus.

When doing the production runs you don’t want to mess with this issue repeatedly so you adjust to fit the production profile needs so that you are right on the $ the first time.

Bend #3

Checking against Master
(again we are checking against the master at every single bend but is redundant to keep showing that)

Bend #4

Bend #5

Bend #6

Checking against Master

Bend #7
This bend is very important for the looks of the profile.
We use a gauge made to the specific dimension to use as a “stop”.

Bend #8

Bend #9

Bend #10

Bend #11
This bend is very important for the looks of the profile.
We use a gauge made to the specific dimension to use as a “stop”.

Bend #12

Production Run is Completed

Check out the Master Profile Prototype originally fabricated.
(on right in the pics)
compared to the production run.
We work close on our numbers.
We work to 1/32 of an inch for most dimensions and sometimes even 1/64 of an inch on some aspects of a project.

First we are going to change out our Saw Blade with a worn out one. The first cut on a new fixture is the hard one. You are cutting through a lot of wood and possibly nails (although we try and avoid cut line areas).

First Cuts. We keep the old blade in the saw for the first Blank Cut. We are cutting a FRONT so we have the luxury of being able to make multiple cuts and not worry about being short. The Blank is 16″ long and the Front is actually 12″ so we have plenty.
The purpose here is to find the cut sequence. You don’t just drop the saw and cut through the entire piece. You have to find out where the “HOT SPOTS” are – the areas where the saw blade is cutting flat to the work piece – and that creates heat. Heat causes the metal to warp…and warpage distorts the cut. You want to figure out the order and position of the saw blade to minimize this.
This miter cut works out to be 4 operations to accomplish the cut.

We cut the Blanks in half to make the new Blanks for the sides. The Blank is not cut completely. If you attempt to cut all the way disaster can happen.
One side is the safe side…the one that is clamped down by the top fixture plate. The other is the floating side. It can do whatever it wants. If for some reason you catch an edge and the piece grabs up on the blade you could loose the piece entirely. Plus risk injuring your saw blade ($86.00) So play it safe.
Been there did that.
They are then hand cut with tin snips the rest of the way to separate them.

Mitering Completed

Well Mitering was almost Completed.
Going through the blanks we found a few that had some signs that our fixturing was not 100% on target.
Two Angled cuts that should not be present for this profile. We can fix these but opted to fix the fixture’s problem areas so that we do not have this problem in the future.
So now…We re-cut the entire batch with the fixes. Better safe than sorry and taking the time to do this now will actually help save time in the more difficult part – Assembly. This will not take any stock off the profile. The problem was that the angles went “outside the profile boundary”. So the re-cuts only took off that extra material.

The hold down Fixtures are assembled to a base so that they form a 90 degree corner.

The blanks are laid into the fixture and tack soldered. Not all tacks are accomplished in the fixture. It is just for a start. Other tacks are accomplished against a stop block on our bench so we can push surfaces together. We also use standing blocks which help us align large flat surfaces to make sure they are indeed flat when tacked in place.

After tacking (and making sure that the miter stays at 90 degrees) the miter soldering is completed.

The first Miter is Soldered.
We learned a few tips for this profile doing this first Corner. For very profile that we do for leader boxes – each one has its “problem areas” that require special attention to get things as close to perfect as possible.
We will apply what we learned to the second Miter.

Second Miter is Soldered and we now want to see just how the Leader Box looks with the Downspout.
And it looks Great.
Will be an easy clean up of the edges.
For the most part they are so close we could just use a buffing blending pad.

Bottom Plate and Outlets.
Short Story. We made plates to fit into the recess edges of the bottom of the leader box profile. Made outlets to fit a 4″ by 3″ Rectangular Corrugated Downspout and soldered them in place.

After determining the configuration of the Back – the Leader Box is placed over the Back Blank. Notice the Weights placed on the Leader Box Body. They will help keep the Leader Box in contact with the Back Plate during solder assembly. As you heat the back plate (which is flat) it can start to warp…so with downward pressure you can minimize this effect. Note that the back is already closely trimmed to the leader box body. This is important as excess material means heat warp as the excess material gets hot it expands and causes lifting. We are soldering on an 1″ thick Aluminum Plate. This plate actually pulls the heat away from the back of the leader box to help reduce this effect. So between the thick plate and the weights we achieve great results.

We make a template so that we can be sure to mark and drill the holes to mount the stars at the same location – every time. The stars have two Brass Screws that have been soldered in place to provide for fastening. We have positioned the screws with a template which will match the hole profile as we laid out for the hole location template. Care must be taken to try and stay right on the money – as any shifting of holes or screws will result with leaning stars. There is a small amount of wiggle room for drill hole size. Since 32 Stars will be installed on this project…we sometimes look to the next one if we have an orientation issue. Try as you may … it is all hand work … if it is off … try and find one that matches the condition and your back on the money again!

The Screening has been made and perimeter wires have all been soldered in place to that the screen will have stability and no perimeter wires will drop off. The Screen is notched to allow for the downspout and swing room to open the lid for any maintenance.

Although this Screen is for 4″ by 3″ Rectangular Corrugated Downspout we were informed that the Inlet Downspout Would be 4″ Round.
We made the change and fabricated to Customer’s Request.