Comment

Comment by Raymond Paul on June 30, 2012 at 4:26am

Comment by Raymond Paul on June 30, 2012 at 4:21am

Ok I need to check my brake as it is very similar to Daves brake but with yours and Rons pointers I need to follow up. Let me see if I can attach a photo of my brake, forgive me if you dont get the photo not good at these computer tasks

Comment by Tim Smart on June 30, 2012 at 4:15am

Raymond,

The coffee is kicking finally, one thing I just remembered. When bending longer lengths of material when I have to remove the center clamping bolts for the material to pass through even the 1/4" x 3" angle iron will give in the center. I solve this by putting a block and jack on top of the clamping plate and jacking against the overhead keeping pressure on the middle. IF NOT AND THE PLATE GIVES THE ANGLE WILL HAVE A BOW. I not familiar with your brake but could this be happening in yours?

Comment by Raymond Paul on June 30, 2012 at 4:01am

Thanks Tim, will check this out right now. Oh by the way it is 11 am now here in Zimbabwe. Enjoy the rest of your weekend there.

Comment by Tim Smart on June 30, 2012 at 3:58am

Morning Raymond, (sorry your evening),

I am on a little I-pad type thing and don't know how to attach a link so... Google "Daves cheap sheet metal brake" and one of the first links up just now is for his plans at ch601.org. It is a good set with great pics and explanations. As a side note, when I built my brake I ruined the 2" aluminum hinge so I went to a 2" stainless steel hinge and stainless steel pop rivets at a pitch of about 30 mm. Hope this helps, let me know if you need anthing else

Comment by Raymond Paul on June 30, 2012 at 3:43am

Hi Tim do you have a link for me to view Daves sheet metal brake

Comment by Raymond Paul on June 30, 2012 at 3:24am

Thanks Ron and Tim for your advise I will work on it. I made up my bending break using the Zenith bending break plans only made it 6 inches longer so as to get the rubber spar in it. I will double check the flatness as well of the angle plates I used.

Comment by Ron D Leclerc on June 28, 2012 at 9:42pm

Hey Raymond...

 

I don't know what you have for a brake... but mine is pretty crude, but works excellent.  Built it out of wood... see my brake photos!

http://www.zenith.aero/photo/albums/5-bending-brake

 

Bends stuff straight as an arrow... bends 0.040 stuff no problem.  Brake is 5' and took 3 hours and about $50 to build.  Biggest cost was 6 - 3" Stanley door hinges.   Wood is great for soft aluminum... but you have to build the brake just right!

Ron

 

 

Comment by Tim Smart on June 28, 2012 at 3:05pm

Raymond,

I forgot to say that my long bends are very straight with no curl or bananna effect at all. Again, good luck, hope this helps.

Comment by Tim Smart on June 28, 2012 at 3:01pm

Raymond,

I do not know what you have for a brake so I can only offer my experience. I first bent some material over a piece of angle bolted to one of my benches, the results were similar to what you describe, and so were my remedies, wider width material etc., all with the same results. I also read somewhere to bend over the desired angle and then open up or qualify the bend by opening up the angle by tapping the angle over a piece of PVC pipe. Didn't work. Next I built a version of "Dave's Sheet Metal Brake". When building the brake I was very carefull that the edge of the anchor angle was as parralel as I could make it to the bending angle. I attached the brake to my other bench which is VERY flat. After trying samples I can and have bent .040" material ninety degrees and 8' long. When I checked my original bench I found it to NOT be very flat at all. I think this was my original problem. Hope this helps, best of luck.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page