I cutout the 0.032" thick Aluminum sheet on the hydraulic shear. Now comes the fun part. Making the 4 bends. My wood part has 0.5" radius rounded corners. I started by taping the sheet onto the flat long side using some masking tape so that it would stay put and stay square.
One down 3 more to go. This was quite a workout bending shaping the metal to get a nice matching round radius.
Number 2, that was even harder. The length is very critical. I found that it wasn't as easy as just making bend like the first one. The bend has to start at the right spot. It took me a while and a lot of hammering and massaging to creep up on the right location for the 2nd. bend to start.
I got lucky on the 3rd bend. Whew! All the time I was checking to make sure it wasn't starting to skew. So far so good, it's lying totally flat on the table.
All done. When I started I was going to cut it in the middle and then butt each end up against each other. In the end I didn't mind the look of the overlapping sheet. It will be much stronger like this and will simplify attaching it using a few screws.
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