Gun racks

As a past machinist, I'd rethink using 1/4 mild steel. 3/16" - 1/4" Aluminum would weigh substantially less and work fine for your application. Great design!

 

I agree, 1/4" steel is beast mode for that application. That is going to be really heavy too.

I'd look into simple 6061 Al, it will be cheaper, lighter, easier to manufacture, and you can anodize them for great protection.

 

Yes, 1/4" steel is definitely overkill. This will be the 1st prototype. If everything looks good, I will look into 1/4"Al. The price jumps up a bit for that material though.

 

I'm not even sure you need 1/4 inch. I think you are going to be surprised at how monstrous that 1/4 inch steel is when you get it back. How much weight are you looking for it to hold?

Also 6061-T6 Aluminum shouldn't be as expensive as low carbon steel. You can also look at 5052 Aluminum as it is easier to bend, some vendors may prefer working with it. I assume your material choice isn't based on load carrying ability. Also at 0.25" you are almost at (or in, depending on who you talk to) plate territory. To keep costs lowest I would look at 5052/6061 Al, reducing the thickness as one member said above to 3/16" max (I don't know how large the part is or how much load you want it to carry, based on that you could even go smaller), and anodizing (this will be cheaper if you have a lot to do at once, typically it is charged by batch).

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out though!

 

Total payload will be ~25lbs by the time gear, bags, and (maybe) a rifle are mounted up. My main concern was the center not bending under load. The flat section up top spans 30" side to side(before the ends bend down). I think I will be surprised how heavy it is when I receive it. I'll look into 3/16" Al for weight savings. Thanks for the tip

 

I have the Bigsky gun rack on the roof, just a point to think about is the length of the rifle, Ruger 10/22 standard models will fit, but a savage 243 bolt is too long and will not fit up tight to the roof. I would have to lower the rack itself to get the longer rifles to fit in the rack do to the tapered roof line and the slopes above the windows. It's not noticeable, I love it

 

^ looks good. Where is your rack anchored to?

 

It's mounted the bolts under the plastic covers in the headliner. It sits just above the side airbags,

 

I removed the cover on this compartment.
Easy access by flipping up just the drivers side rear seat.
10 mags in a bag under the rifles stock.

 

There were threaded inserts from the factory?? 3rd gen??

 

2015 access cab , yes there were threaded insert under plastic covers

 

ahh.. makes sense. Another reason not to buy a 3rd gen!
They switched to a plain hole with plastic clips holding in the overhead handles.

 

Just another cost savings and corner to cut. Thanks Toyota

 

You really don't need anything near that thick, don't prototype it in that either, really limits your shop choices. 12 gauge sheet metal is plenty stiff enough.

 

When dealing with shops, you just provide them a drawing or solid model of what you want fabricated. They calculate the K factors based on their skills and what their machines can get done. Providing a flat pattern is a mistake and leads to more mistakes.

 

I am not an engineer, but 12ga Sheet metal seems really flimsy?..especially loaded out. The center is going to be the weakest since it is completely flat for 30" across

 

The molle panel I designed was 12 gauge steel. Admittedly it has bends which add some inherent stiffness, but it sure wasn't whippy at all. Likely you are distributing the load, it won't be a point load right in the middle of the 30" span. Maybe go with 1/8" then.

I used 1/4" steel to make the bumper for my FJ55 Landcruiser. That was almost too beefy to handle by myself.

 

What threading is on the bolts going into this, 1/4 inch? Maybe you could replace it with a Rivet Nut like Mobtown does on their tailgate hardware? Having done that replacement it really was as simple as drilling out the intended hole, tightening the crap out of the rivet nut, then using it as an actual nut for attaching real hardware.

 

I used rivnuts on the Jeep. Pretty easy to do.

 

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