Mirror Brackets: CAD Design and CNC Work?

[jhuerta22]

After a few weekends of trial and error, amateur drawing, and fabrication, I have made a template for light brackets that bolt between the mirror and the body. However, I am stuck at my paper template since I do not have the CAD programming or a CNC machine at my disposal.

My question to you is have you taken any designs to metal shops and what kind of success have you had in having the pieces made and what kind of quality have you seen in the final product? Is there anyone here who is good with CAD and/or a CNC machine? Any suggestions as to where I should go?

 

[Gabskings]

I have access to Catia V5 (I'm a tool designer in aeronautics) if you want me to do the part & drawing for you, shouldn't take that long for a simple bracket. After that, all you have to do is send it to a machine shop and ask how much it would cost to fab it!

 

[zoombyu86]

There are plenty of engineers and student engineers on this site to also help if need be.

 

[jhuerta22]

I have access to Catia V5 (I'm a tool designer in aeronautics) if you want me to do the part & drawing for you, shouldn't take that long for a simple bracket. After that, all you have to do is send it to a machine shop and ask how much it would cost to fab it!

There are plenty of engineers and student engineers on this site to also help if need be.

I appreciate that much! [MENTION=140085]Gabskings[/MENTION], I only have one template at the moment, but I can make a copy made and hopefully you could take measurements from it. I'll pm the details to you.

I will try to post a picture ASAP if you guys don't mind providing me some feedback on the design.

 

[jhuerta22]

This is a rough sketch, which obviously needs some fine tuning, but after several mock-ups this is the best solution I can come up with. My questions are:

1) What thickness of metal would I want to go with? I've been playing with the idea of 3/16" which would hopefully keep it from being too thick and push the mirrors out too far, but still provide enough heft to keep the bracket from bouncing around.

2) The way the bracket is supported is by sandwiching it between the door and the mirror frame, so exactly how tight do I want my tolerances (how much wiggle room do I need) on the interior cutouts?

 

[zoombyu86]

Needs measurements to input it into CAD. This is where drafting is useful. Haha. I am an engineering student but have ZERO time to do anything extra. Not sure if there are such programs that you can scan this and a program digitally provides measurements. Hardest part would be coming up with precise measurements for the radius of circles.

 

[I_bRAD]

Don't forget you're going to need to seal it all up again too!

 

[jhuerta22]

Don't forget you're going to need to seal it all up again too!

Good point! I figured I would work on that while working out the fitment of the bracket. If you have any suggestions for it, I'm all ears! For now, I just need to find a way to get the design onto CAD so that I can get these cut out and start working on bending them to shape.

 

[Tucson4runner]

Looking forward to seeing the end product

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[Dephcon]

Couple questions, and please don't let them deter you for working on this project, but I'm trying to see what the point of these brackets are. The CBI ditch light brackets seem like they would be very close to the same location that these would be. Since the CBI brackets mount from under the hood they are a bit more forward so the windshield post would not be an issue of being in the way. Just curious, again please dont let me deter you from developing this.

 

[silver4est]

is that template you have there to scale? if you wanna send it to me, just draw with a ruler a measured one inch line on it, i can scan it into illustrator and get the correct scale from that and transfer that file to rhino cad and send you back a dwg file you can take to a shop.

 

[jhuerta22]

Couple questions, and please don't let them deter you for working on this project, but I'm trying to see what the point of these brackets are. The CBI ditch light brackets seem like they would be very close to the same location that these would be. Since the CBI brackets mount from under the hood they are a bit more forward so the windshield post would not be an issue of being in the way. Just curious, again please dont let me deter you from developing this.

The biggest thing about these is that they would not require any drilling, cutting, or modifying to work on a vehicle. So, removing them would not be an issue if they needed to be removed. With all the mock-up work, I made sure that there was ample space for the light to mount to the bracket, but also not interfere with the windshield post. I'm not sure how they would work with a snorkel. That would be a good point to think about. Another reason for me was I wanted a nice, clean, easy install for ditch lights.

I'm not at all taking credit for this design idea. Yodateq makes a bracket like this for FJ80's, but they won't work for 4runners, even heavily modified. They served as the basis for the template I made, and I'd like to see if it would be something that they would be interested in making if there is enough interest here for them. Here is the link for the FJ80 brackets.

Ditch Light Mirror Mounts - FJ80 Toyota Land Cruiser Lexus LX450

It looks pretty slick and I'd love to have a set for my 4runner.

 

[I_bRAD]

Good point! I figured I would work on that while working out the fitment of the bracket. If you have any suggestions for it, I'm all ears! For now, I just need to find a way to get the design onto CAD so that I can get these cut out and start working on bending them to shape.

I actually designed a bunch of OEM side mirror gaskets back in the day. We used closed cell foam, which is heated and then compressed to fit the two mating parts exactly, with just the right amount of compression. Easy in theory, difficult in practice since usually both sides are not nice flat surfaces.

Not sure what the inside of a 4runner mirror looks like but a good rule of thumb is you want about 50% compression of the foam in the installed position.

 

[jhuerta22]

is that template you have there to scale? if you wanna send it to me, just draw with a ruler a measured one inch line on it, i can scan it into illustrator and get the correct scale from that and transfer that file to rhino cad and send you back a dwg file you can take to a shop.

The template is the mock up I came up with, so it is to scale. Do the edges need to be dark, or does it need to be on a dark background to make it easier to see the edges?

 

[sn0wrunner]

is that template you have there to scale? if you wanna send it to me, just draw with a ruler a measured one inch line on it, i can scan it into illustrator and get the correct scale from that and transfer that file to rhino cad and send you back a dwg file you can take to a shop.

Couldn't you just load the bitmap into Rhino directly and trace from there? VIEW>BACKGROUND_BITMAP

 

[JWaldz]

[MENTION=96630]jhuerta22[/MENTION]

I may be able to help you out...

Can you send me a message with some more details on the part. I'd like to know more information about it.

 

[Doc2012]

Good idea. I like it. If it works with the snorkel, I might get me a set, if you produce them.

3/16" is going to be WAY too much for those brackets, however.

I made a CB bracket out of 18ga, and it flexed a little, but not too much. I then made one out of 1/8", and I have to SLAM my trunk to get it to close.

I'm probably going to go back and make another one out of 18ga, just because it was easy and didn't mess with stuff too much.

If you're making this out of one piece, I'd say 18ga would be plenty for the lights.


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[jhuerta22]

I'm going to try and get a final template with some dimensions done today. If you need any specific information, please let me know and I'll try to get it for you.

I appreciate all the help you are giving me on here. This has been a project in the works for at least over a year and I'd love to see it finally come together.

 

[jhuerta22]

Good idea. I like it. If it works with the snorkel, I might get me a set, if you produce them.

3/16" is going to be WAY too much for those brackets, however.

I made a CB bracket out of 18ga, and it flexed a little, but not too much. I then made one out of 1/8", and I have to SLAM my trunk to get it to close.

I'm probably going to go back and make another one out of 18ga, just because it was easy and didn't mess with stuff too much.

If you're making this out of one piece, I'd say 18ga would be plenty for the lights.


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After testing some 1/8" sheet metal in the shop, I'm thinking I might want to go a little thinner, but then again, I'd hate to have the mounted lights bouncing all over the place when I'm driving. I'm thinking if I do go with a smaller gauge, I'll have to decrease the size of the bottom plate to avoid applying to much stress to the bend in the bracket. Going to 1/16" might be a viable option. I might have to mock that up.

 

[Brilliant]

I think it's emachineshop.com that has a simple drafting program and let's you order finished parts per your design.