Homemade Sheet Metal Brake?

[GlenG]

Hi,

I need to make a roughly 20” x 30“ x 3” deep to hold water, and thought it may be time to bake a small brake. Has anyone made their own brake? Did you use plans or wing it with your own design? Did you make a simple bending brake or a box and pan (finger) brake? What pitfalls did you run into? Any lessons learned?

 

[Mcgyver]

I made a finger brake and use it from time to time, its quite useful. To do a 20-30" bend would mean one heck of a brake, or very thin metal. If you've not used one before, it can be surprising how much force it takes. How thick are you thinking? Material? A build is a lot of effort; might make sense to get it bent if you don't see an ongoing use. I often weld stuff if it is more than my little 24" brake can handle (or use the 300ton one at work lol)

 

[GlenG]

I made a finger brake and use it from time to time, its quite useful. To do a 20-30" bend would mean one heck of a brake, or very thin metal. If you've not used one before, it can be surprising how much force it takes. How thick are you thinking? Material? A build is a lot of effort; might make sense to get it bent if you don't see an ongoing use. I often weld stuff if it is more than my little 24" brake can handle (or use the 300ton one at work lol)

24ga steel is my first project and haven’t thought much more then that yet. I could probably just get it done at work, but where is the fun in that, LOL. Didn’t think about welding it but I suppose that’s an option. I’m a firm believer that either buying or making new tools is a great excuse for a new project, .

 

[Six O Two]

Here's mine.

No set plans, but I took many ideas from around the web. I think this vid from Fitzee's Fab was the main source of inspiration.

In hindsight, the tube I used to make the hinge was/is too thin, and there's a bit too much slop in the hinge. I should have used thicker walled tube, or machined something. I may yet retrofit that area. It could benefit from a truss on the top of the break also, there's a bit of flex in the top clamping bit.

I've used it to make a few projects, including some sheet metal drawers for my welding cart, and I'm pretty happy with it. Though given the sale price which often comes up on the princess auto bench top break, I wonder if that might have been the easier course, ha.

 

[GlenG]

That's nice @Six O Two . Pretty much what I was thinking. What size hinges are they, they look pretty robust from the pictures.

 

[Six O Two]

What size hinges are they, they look pretty robust from the pictures.

I just used what I had on hand; the pin is 1/2in dia and good, but the outside tube was an oddball size, or maybe it was conduit or something - it's only ~.035" thick. It warped pretty bad when I welded it and you can sort of make out where I blew through it on the near corner. I should have used something with at least a 1/16th wall.

 

[WilliamR]

@Six O Two that is a very nice looking design. Fancy bends on the handle lips as well. I bought the princess auto bender, one side has larger gap than the other haha but does come with nice machined chunk of .375"x 4"(?) plate 30" long and the angle iron was machined. With a lot of effort I bent 16 gauge 30" wide for my lathe cart with it. (I did have to "tweak" at corners during install to get 90 degrees)

@GlenG wouldn't you need something with fingers for making a box/pan? I've bent up stuff on steel welding bench with pieces of metal clamped both sides of section being bent, and main part clamped to bench with piece of metal on top at bend radius. Have done 1/4" and 3/8" stainless same method but with multiple slits along bend radius that were welded up later.

 

[GlenG]

@GlenG wouldn't you need something with fingers for making a box/pan? I've bent up stuff on steel welding bench with pieces of metal clamped both sides of section being bent, and main part clamped to bench with piece of metal on top at bend radius. Have done 1/4" and 3/8" stainless same method but with multiple slits along bend radius that were welded up later.

Yes I will. Have seen a couple of similar on youtube where they have made individual fingers or one where he partial slit the the forward leg of the top angle iron that is used as the clamp, creating pseudo short "fingers".

 

[garageguy]

I bought the PA one that has a stand. If I were going to do it again I would definitely get one (or build one) with fingers. The other problem I run into is that the top clamping piece often doesn't lift high enough to completely release the sheet after bending. It's been an OK tool but the next step up would have been a whole lot handier.