Sheetmetal brake ???

[wshytle]

Does anyone (Ken) have any good ideas for making a homemade sheetmetal brake? I have plenty of 4" angle, some heavy duty hinges, and plenty of handle material. My main concern is a clamping system. I've been thinking some sort of cam with compression springs. It doesn't need to be more than two feet wide; I never need to brake anything longer than that. I'd like it to bend 3/32" or even 1/8" if that's possible to do by hand.

I have a few battery trays to build/rebuild among other things.

Any and all ideas appreciated.

 

[aschumacher]

Wayne, here is a small job
http://forum.ih8mud.com/tools-fabrication/346002-homemade-sheet-metal-brake.html
If you do a Google search on 'homemade sheet metal brake', you will find a few more to look at.

 

[wshytle]

Thanks Allen-

I googled and there were in fact several. I also went to Youtube and found some good ideas. Deck patching and battery trays are the main drive behind making a brake.

 

[mgonitzke]

If you want to bend 1/8" steel you will need a pretty hefty brake. At school we had one for bending sheetmetal for aircraft and stuff, and the thickest sheetmetal it could handle was 16 gauge, and that was a pretty heavy-duty bending brake. The 44/50" decks are 90 thou, and I think the earlier ones might be thicker, so that's gonna be a stretch.

 

[dfrisk]

MATT - I'd have to mic the deck to be sure but my old 38" deck must be either 10 or 11 gauge, .1345" or .1196". I know I arc welded it with NO problem when I modified it. I've never weighed one but I always thought a NON-CI end 38" deck weighed more than my 44A deck did.

WAYNE - When I made my flat-top fenders for my CC 72 years ago, I used our 20-ton "H" Press at work with some bending jigs I welded up at home.
The fenders were 11 ga and about a foot wide where I bent them. I wanted a radiused bend and even though I bent them between angle iron I got a real nice radius on the bends, probably a 3/4" radius. Might be a way for you to get TWO tools for the price of one! You can buy 20-ton H presses at Harbor Freight for about what the steel costs to make one. Just checked their website, $199.99 for a 20-ton, $129.99 for a 12-ton.

 

[wshytle]

Dennis-

I have considered the 20 ton press from Harbor Freight and sort of kept an eye out for sales. I need it for many things as well as thick sheet metal bends but right now I don't have a decent place for it. I may end up just making a small press for just the sheet metal bending. I have a 12 ton jack I could use plus the steel. I'd need my buzz box and it's presently buried in storage (of sorts).