When using the miter flange command in SolidWorks you have the option of setting a ‘Gap Distance’ as seen in this picture:
The gap distance was set as .069296 and the resulting ‘corner gap’ is .049. If you are wishing to add spotweld tab flanges that would fold inside of these existing flanges you need to have a ‘corner gap’ of slightly more than the material thickness. In this example I’m using 18ga which is why I went with the .049 corner gap. The mitered flange command does not give you the option of entering the ‘corner gap’ it only gives you the option of entering a Gap distance. How do you determine the Gap distance required to give you a desired corner gap?
The formula is:
where .049 is the desired corner gap.
The keystrokes on a TI 89 calculator is as follows: (replace .049 with the corner gap you desire)
KEY STROKES DISPLAY
2nd
√ √(
( √(( * - on a TI 86 press ‘(‘ twice
.049 √((.049
^ √((.049^
2 √((.049^2
) √((.049^2)
X √((.049^2)X
2 √((.049^2)X2
) √((.049^2)X2)
ENTER .069296…
With this useful piece of information I can now finish the part as such:
This started out as an exercise for myself wanting to get this procedure down on paper so I don’t have to think about when I need to do it. But I guess someone else might get some use out of it. Now I just need to create a function on the TI-89 to do this with less keystrokes…
