After missing a week, I am finally back with a new design tutorial. Two weeks ago we started building a stapler with the first part of the assembly, the base. This week, I will be building the arm bracket which is a simple sheet metal component. After today, you will be able to make a simple sheet metal part and a simple forming tool. A forming tool is used like a die to bend, shape and form sheet metal. The arm bracket and the two forming tools, we will be using, can be downloaded here: Arm Bracket, Stapler (975).

Making a Forming Tool

The arm bracket requires two different forming tools, but for sake of preserving your sanity, I will only be describing one. This forming tool is used to form the bottom of the bracket to holds one of the springs in place. To start, create a sketch on the top plane and draw a .400 diameter circle, as shown below.

Extrude the circle .075″ high and add a draft of 15°, as shown below. This will be the main shape of the forming tool, but we still have a few more steps in order to make it usable.

Next, create a rectangular extrusion approximately as shown below. The length, width and height of the extrusion doesn’t matter as long as it is at least .250 bigger then the previous extrusion. This second extrusion is used only for creating the necessary fillets we need for forming.

On the bottom edge create a fillet that has a radius of .065″.

On the top edge, add a .010″ radius as well.

Now that we have created our radii, we need to remove the bottom extrusion. As you may know, we cannot just remove it from the FeatureManager. if we did, the fillets be removed as well since they are child features of the two extrusions. Instead, we remove the extrusion by creating a Cut Extrude that eliminates the geometry. Here I created a sketch on one of the faces and I used the Convert Entities tool to create the sketch. Then Cut Extrude through the entire feature.

Now, we are left with the actually geometry that will make up the forming tool…

…but we are not done yet. We need to make the part a true forming tool. In the Sheet Metal toolbar select the Forming Tool button, or in select Insert -> Sheet Metal -> Forming Tool from the pull down menu.

As you can see, the PropertyManager for forming tools is real simple. Not a whole lot of options to chose from, only Stopping Face and Faces to Remove. The Stopping Face is the face on the forming tool that will stop on the selected sheet metal face.

Select the back face of the part. The color of the face will change green to match the selection window in the Forming Tool PropertyManager. SIDE NOTE: Doesn’t the image below look like the old flying saucer photos from the 70’s?

Next, select the Faces to Remove Selection Window. You will not need to do this for all forming tools you may create, only when you need the forming tool to create a cut out. Notice that this window is bigger then the Stopping Face window, this is because you can only have one stopping face but you can have multiple cutouts.

Select the top face of the part, this will make a hole in the finished sheet metal part when we use the forming tool.

After clicking the green check mark in the Forming Tool PropertyManager, the faces of the part will change color. The Stopping Face will be cyan, the faces that will be removed will turn red and the rest of the part will become yellow.

Before a forming tool can be used, you must place it in your Design Library. If you already have forming tools in your Design Library, you should place it with the others. If you do not know how to add something to the design library, you can either place it in the design library via Windows Explorer or use the Add to Library button just above the Design Library. Next week I will be going more into depth on the Design Library.

Also, before you can use a forming tool from the design library, the folder must be designated as a Forming Tools Folder by right clicking the folder.

Now that we have created our forming tools, we can now move onto creating the actual bracket. Coming up next…

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