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Aluminium Composite Tray, Help sourcing a Trade Supplier?
Which Composite tray suppliers do people recommend at the moment?
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26 Replies
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We are using Blackburns at the minute…good prices and good quality
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Before we started making our own, couldn’t fault Cherwell trays.
Not as cheap as making our own but really good quality & great corners -
Before we started making our own, couldn’t fault Cherwell trays.
Not as cheap as making our own but really good quality & great corners -
Tuvisio :thumbsup:
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Only just started using tuvisio, also a very helpful outfit.
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thanks for the suggestions
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Would you not consider buying a router and making your own? Our supplier normally takes a couple of weeks so going to attempt them in house (we’re based in Northern Ireland. At least for the more basic ones
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It wasn’t the cost so much as the turnaround times that sent us down the diy route. We had Festool come out & demo their dibond milling machine & we ordered one immediately. Fantastic tool & took no time to pay for itself.
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Kevin, do you have a link to that?
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Hi Daniel.
Just searched it on the Festool UK site. https://www.festool.co.uk.
You may have a Festool dealer near you. I’ve got three near me who was as much use as a box of rubber spanners. I found a dealer in South Wales called Timberman Ltd. A really helpful guy called Mike who like all the other dealers had never heard of it let alone seen one, but unlike the rest he was willing to move away from his desk to get one for me & was kind enough to just charge £50 over cost. I bought a 3m & 1.2m guide rail & a vacuum extractor with it & it’s a good kit. Expensive stuff but worth it when a sheet of millable ACM is around £35-£40, it doesn’t take long to pay you back. Also, you can mill the sheet then wrap it edge to edge before folding. We rivet the corners with a piece of 40mm angle, glueing isn’t really necessary, all the trays I’ve bought in crack like bubble wrap when carrying anyway so I’m doubtful that the glue is really doing much at all. My lad can route an 8’ x 4’ & fold & rivet in around 30 minutes now.
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We have the same, just takes a bit of measuring, I’ve even done one. Though I couldn’t pull the riv it thingy, wasn’t strong enough
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Get one of these riveters Denise. No effort required.
Attachments:
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We usually do 50mm returns so made a couple of spacers from acm so don’t need to measure them unless it’s a different size tray. Just butt the guide rail against the spacers & you have an equal cut all the way round. If it’s a big tray we order sheets cut to size including the 100mm needed for the returns, otherwise it’s cut on the steeltrak. It does have a v groove tool but we’ve never really rated it
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How do you guys do the corners with this tool? Do you mitre the corners or butt join the corner, most I have bought in have been cnc and have the angled finish which looks neater, but I was unsure how to do this manually, I see makita do one now for about £500
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We route over the return & chop the corner our with shears. Nice neat mitre with a rivet
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I do like these but the price put me off, the Makita seems much better value, do you get the guide for that price? How do they compare?
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In-Makpac
these do the rails too, all in about £500
not bought one yet but tempted
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quote Barry Smith:Makita-Ca5000Xj-2-0088381699846-240V-Aluminium-Groove-Cutter-In-Makpac
these do the rails too, all in about £500
not bought one yet but temptedLooks very similar to the Festool one we have, rude not to have a punt at that price.
Festool stuff is designed for prolonged use on-site, doesn’t get used like that at my place, fairly light use so the Makita one is worth a go if it comes with a guide rail as well -
Very tempting.
Watching a couple of vids on them, the Festool seems a lot cleaner, less mess but that is one hell of a price difference which scares me.
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Tempted here too, looks cleaner than using a handheld router with bits of the core flying everywhere, one thing that has always put me off doing it inhouse.
Was looking to see what guides you need to go with it.
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A lot cheaper than the 70 grand we’ve been quoted for a cnc, but yes, they know how to charge alright. If it had been £500 I might have just bought it, but at their prices, I called out their demo guy to show us it working at our place with our materials. I don’t have any regrets about it truthfully, it kind of forces you to do every job that would normally have been flat panel as a tray though, may be making a rod for your own back. If you’re quoting against somebody who is offering flat panel compared to your tray, can’t see you not winning the business unless it’s a really stingy client in which case, you don’t want them anyway. Just my opinion
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quote David Hammond:Tempted here too, looks cleaner than using a handheld router with bits of the core flying everywhere, one thing that has always put me off doing it inhouse.
Was looking to see what guides you need to go with it.
We use a hand router and yea it’s a pain but not as bad as you think. Quick 5 minute hoover with mr Henry and it’s all gone. Don’t think I’ve ever had a bit of core underneath some vinyl.
Much prefer the no mess option though. Another tool to the shopping list
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Sorry to resurrect an old thread but can the Festool also cut through the ACM as well as V groove it? And if so, does it mill through it or would you switch the blade for a more normal plunge / circ saw blade? What kind of edge do you get? Thanks.
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Afraid that’s a circular saw job, the milling machine will just do the v groove, would still use the guide rail though, I wouldn’t risk damaging the v groove blade with a plunge cut, not at £400 each
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I have just taken delivery of a Makita CA5000/2 from FFX Tools (£435). I purchased a 3000mm Makita guid track from HowesTools (£99) and a set of guide rail clamps from amazon (£10).
Had some scrap dibond, i-bond and other versions on the bench and I have managed to create a sale worthy product.
It was tricky to get the depth of cut correct and if your bench isn’t perfectly level you will not get an even groove.First attempts were either not deep enough causing the dibond to split on the outer edge on fold or to deep which then on fold became far to weak.
I also think until mastered I will draw out the lines on the reverse of the dibond first. I measured for the grooves down the sides but trying to get the folds to line up nice was difficult after it was already grooved.
If anyone is interested in a un-boxing / product demo video let me know and I will get to work!
Oh and a dyson hoover with the car thin attachment fits in and eliminates any mess. (tried without and had to get the hoover out!!)
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