Can roof tile tools

Original project was created by Kevin Cheung, where he explored the possibility of tiling a roof with sliced aluminium cans. For this purpose he developed a can cutting tool to remove the ends of cans so they can be flattened into aluminium sheets. Tile shape is then cut from this sheet using Kevin's template, and margins folded to allow the tiles to slot into each other and provide watertight seal.

My alteration to the design allows it to be printed faster (original design is made for injection molding) and uses different cutting method - 9mm utility blade instead of a rotary cutter. I'm also attaching only one side of the cutter wall to the base. This allows me to modulate the pressure I want to put on the can, as well as accounts for different blade stickout when I need to replace it with a fresh one. The bolt keeping the blade in place is screwed into a heat insert. Previous iteration without the heat insert did not last many blade replacements because the plastic around the bolt wore away.

Kevin has made cutting die to cut the tile shapes, I've opted for 3D printed templates and a utility blade. The template is 15mm wide, which is also the folding margin. The bending tool has a small notch at 15mm too, but this may abrade away as you fold more cans. This is where the margin on cutting template can help.

I've created 2 sets of templates - full size and undersized. The undersized version is generally smaller by 2mm in both directions than it's full size counterpart. Whilst working on our project with friends we discovered slight variation in the can sizes. Additionally, if you don't cut straight with your scissors you might end up with slanted side. Undersizing the template accounts for most of these issues.

BOM:

• 9mm utility (snap-off) blade

• M3x20 - 5x

• M3x10 - 1x

• M3 small washer - 1x

• M3x3x4.2 heat insert - 1x