I read the article on Sheet metal tool and die making and wondered if a similar tooling process would work to create a custom die cutting form to cut paper? How were the 1 mm thick aluminum form and three steel guide dowels attached?
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Ah, the good ole cookie cutter application tool! Never fails haha.
The die pressing done in the flat-pack grill creation is similar to that of paper die cutting. As you can see in the picture below, the form and guide dowels are two separate pieces. This is a little more complex than a die cutter for paper, but has some similarities.
I am unaware of the exact procedure and measurements, but this is how I would set it up - The cut-out hole was measured, and the dowels placed at each corner to provide the most support and keep the pressure applied throughout the entire piece. Afterwards, create a triangular cut out (that is larger than the triangular hole) and use the measurements of the dowels (& their respective holes) in place on the larger triangle.
In order to keep the press clean, you will need to create the larger triangle cut-out twice. One side for the pressing end, and one side for the receiving end. The pics above help to show this.
The receiving end is made with two layers of metal - the bottom containing the dowel cut outs with the top layer containing the larger triangle cut out to form the receiving press.
As for how these pieces and dowels are attached, I am not entirely sure but I believe with some small tig/mig or possibly even spot welding it can be done rather quickly.
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