building more LPB beds... come watch (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Awl_TEQ

Supporting Vendor
Joined
Aug 27, 2008
Threads
38
Messages
3,855
Location
Calgary Alberta
This thread is intended to document my building of LPB beds for the general interest of the community and for my clients to follow along. I believe the 45 section is where this thread belongs but if it is not appropriate for this section I do apologize and the MODS should feel free to move it elsewhere.

As some of you may know, I am starting a run of LPB beds. I managed to scare up some business by posting in my bed sales thread (see sig) that I was going to do a run and may never do another. I now have a couple less than 10 beds officially on order with deposits paid or almost paid. These beds, though reasonably priced, are not inexpensive and I want to thank my clients for trusting me and taking the small leap of faith to take part in this. I do appreciate it. I will not divulge my clients screen names in this thread as I feel this is not my right. You guys know who you are and should feel free to chime in at any time. In fact I encourage you to take part in any discussions that arise.

I will be taking this week to review my drawings and layouts to ensure all the minor tweeks and changes learned from the last batch are implemented. I will also be ordering material and scheduling my near term future to prioritize this build. I will be extending all deliveries of my other products to concentrate on beds. If you have ordered something from me BEFORE this post it will be done and shipped this week.

A few teaser shots from last time...

P1010016_12.webp

P1010009_17.webp

P1010005_27.webp

I will complete each component of the bed, one component at a time, until all the parts required for every bed are ready for final assembly. I will then assemble one bed at a time and ship them out. This process will take a few months due to the fact that this is not my day job and I have a family to appease as well. There is also my sanity to preserve.

As mentioned, I am adding a few features to certain parts of the bed to make assembly easier and to enhance the original look. These changes include, but are not limited to...

1) I have added pre-punched holes to assist in "rosette" or "plug" welding parts together. Where ever a spot weld is needed I have punched a hole in the less visible part to allow welding. Last time I drilled a lot of holes.

2) The rear corner post where the tailgate chains hang from... My last rendition did not have the pressed in stiffening rib or emboss. I will attempt to replicate that this time.

3) The rear valence... Last time it was just flat where the tail lights mount. Again, I will attempt to press in the recess for the lights. Also, I will be making both the three and four hinge versions. I will need some info from the community on the three hinge. Ideally, I need one in my hands.

4) The tailgate... yep, gonna try the letters. I believe I can do them if I do one letter at a time. The issue then becomes one of jigging and positioning.

5) The wheel humps or wheel wells... Last time I just "threw in" a rib using a tool I have. I will try and make a more original looking inside surface this time.

It may be a couple weeks before I have new photo's and maybe even video to post so until then...
:cheers:
P1010016_12.webp
P1010005_27.webp
P1010009_17.webp
 
Just want to chime in and say that Kevins work is top notch,and this is the best repro bed available to the 45 community.:beer:
 
Kevin,
Looking forward to the progress. You always do such amazing work.

4) The tailgate... yep, gonna try the letters. I believe I can do them if I do one letter at a time. The issue then becomes one of jigging and positioning.

Sent PM about this.
 
I've purchased several items from Kevin, and I have always been impressed with (and jealous of) the quality of his workmanship.

I can't wait to see these all assembled - they will be sensational. I wish I was one of the new owners, but I am pretty confident they will be very happy whomever they are.
Josh
 
What was that I heard?? Did someone say SWB beds?? Why yes...I would be interested in one of those as well....good idea;)
 
Look What Kevin Made for Me

So I dropped in at the bed factory and found Kevin putting the finishing touches on my new bed sides.
DSCF1104.webp
DSCF1106.webp
DSCF1107.webp
 
Yup, that's Kevin alright... or someone wearing his coveralls.

Josh
 
That may be the first time my face has graced this website.


So the material is all ordered for the beds. Should arrive tomorrow except for the 5'X8' sheets for the sides. Those will be here on the 15th as they are coming from Vancouver. I will be punching out some stuff on the weekend. I'll see if I can compose a video with my new iphone and post it up here.
 
Oh please, oh please.. add some wheel well patch panels to your offerings
Im sure there are plenty of rust outs out there...and in my case one of the POs :bang::flipoff2::crybaby: cut them out for bigger tires
 
Last edited:
I'll make you some patch panels. Don't know when though. When do you think you can use them?
 
I'm working on a video of what I got done today. Probably won't finish editing out all the screw-ups until tomorrow:hillbilly: . No doubt it'll be long and boring for most of you but some of you may enjoy the insight into how I get stuff made.

Until then here is the synopsis:

I finished off the last of my other misc work. I'll ship that out tomorrow too. Then I blasted a couple of my own parts. Gotta keep that going or the wife won't be able to park in the garage this winter.

Then I busted open a skid of material, dug down to the 12Ga sheets and punched out all the 12Ga parts for the beds. Except the rear valence. I have some experimenting to do on those before I can make them. I am going to try to bend most of the 12Ga parts this week. The cross members and front wall ends/ front corner posts are pretty simple. But the rear corner post is a bit more complex because I am going to try and press in the embossed recess like the factory did. I'll have to make a set of dies for that. May not get that done this week.

The basic plan is to punch out a few parts, bend them up and weld any seams or details that each individual part requires. Then take them home to the garage for storage until all the parts are done. Once everything is in the garage I will start assembly.

Anyway.... back to editing
:cheers:
Kevin
 
Kevin, you make it sound so simple. can't wait to see some of your reworking/tweeking to the beds.

it didn't seem that there was much room for improvements on your first thread, I'm pretty sure the batch of beds your setting up for will be nothing short of remarkable.

:beer:,

-Sean
 
Ok, videos are ready. I edited out quite a bit of footage but left in some boring stuff because I know some of you guys like the little details of how stuff works. I didn't dub any audio in and my voice is a bit hard to hear. Then again I don't say much anyway. Shot the whole thing with an iphone.

I made one long video of what I did yesterday but had to break it into three parts to fit on youtube.

I enjoy what I do for a living but trying to explain it to people outside the industry is sometimes difficult so like I said, I left in the mundane stuff too.





 
Last edited:
KillerPea said:
What was that I heard?? Did someone say SWB beds?? Why yes...I would be interested in one of those as well....good idea;)

Sorry Killerpea, didn't mean to ignore your thinly veiled request for SWB beds. One never knows what the future holds. I'm not opposed to the idea. But the timing isn't right ATM.

Kevin
 
Very cool Kevin, I just watched how my bed cross members were made! That is some amazing tooling,and I am glad you are a cruiserhead! Do you hear the the noise?:D
 
Awesome great fun. Do you optimize for tool reuse, or for material movement, or is it just drunken Canadian randomonium? :cheers:

I didn't optimize this particular program too much but each tool is used only once. It doesn't cycle back and forth from, say, 0.250 to .375. It just punches all the 0.250 holes and then all the .375 holes. Because the length of the part is more than the size of the travel of the bed there is a "reposition" where the clamps let go and move before punching the rest of the blank. Before and after the reposition it will scroll through the tools one at a time. This blank is a "nest" of a dozen or more different parts so the tool load was fairly big due to the requirements of each individual part being slightly different. Also, having a nest of parts rather than a bunch of the same part generally makes more travel required.

If I was punching this selection of parts on a regular basis I would separate them all on to one blank for each part and optimize the tool path and sequence to shave every last second off the cycle time and save material. Our software allows you to sequence anything you want. I just found it easier to make one blank per bed.

Kevin
 
I didn't optimize this particular program too much but each tool is used only once. It doesn't cycle back and forth from, say, 0.250 to .375. It just punches all the 0.250 holes and then all the .375 holes. Because the length of the part is more than the size of the travel of the bed there is a "reposition" where the clamps let go and move before punching the rest of the blank. Before and after the reposition it will scroll through the tools one at a time. This blank is a "nest" of a dozen or more different parts so the tool load was fairly big due to the requirements of each individual part being slightly different. Also, having a nest of parts rather than a bunch of the same part generally makes more travel required.

If I was punching this selection of parts on a regular basis I would separate them all on to one blank for each part and optimize the tool path and sequence to shave every last second off the cycle time and save material. Our software allows you to sequence anything you want. I just found it easier to make one blank per bed.

Like I said, great fun. I would love to do this for a living. Unfortunately people need to watch TV, and someone has to program those too.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom