Another DIY shop press brake

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Almost done with mine.. A little more progress today. Need to finish welding and add stiffeners here and there.

J

 

[e9999]

can one do repeatable clean intermediate angles with those or is it only good for 90deg?

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

can one do repeatable clean intermediate angles with those or is it only good for 90deg?

I can bend pretty much any angle with this. It takes a little to repeat, as this is a 90% manual operation. I use a digital angle finder as well. It would be nice to have a backgauge for a faster set up on multiple repeat production.

I use a 3" V-die so I can bend thicker material with less tonnage, but gives up the sharper bend/edge. Once I get the remainder welded out I may change to a 1 1/2" or 2" V-die and either add another jack or just limit my width/thickness of materials.

J

 

[davegonz]

Very cool Jason. Is it air bending or bottoming?

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Very cool Jason. Is it air bending or bottoming?

D, I will/can do both with this press. Bottom on thinner gauge and air for heavier. The 45 degree (pic above) is air bent

J

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

I think I'll make an "insert" to go into the 3" V-die... that way I can have multiple options for my bends.

J

 

[warezdog]

I see other guys tossing in a solid dowel to accomplish this.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

I see other guys tossing in a solid dowel to accomplish this.

Yes, I've seen this and looks to work pretty well. I have several sizes of bar stock to choose from in the shop. Just need to play around with it. I was just going to build up a piece of angle iron to lay directly into the 3" angle that I have now.

J

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

24" of 1/4"... The single 32 ton was struggling to get this bend to 90 degrees. But I'm happy with the results. Ran out of 3/16" plate so had to use the thicker material for the 80s 1/4 panel mock up.

J

 

[e9999]

curious about all this...
would it make sense -subsequent strength wise- to heat up the plates just before bending them?

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

curious about all this...
would it make sense -subsequent strength wise- to heat up the plates just before bending them?

Too much time and money IMO.

J

 

[warezdog]

FIY Fastenal is having a good clearance sale on flat bar in alum, stainless and hot rolled. Bought 1/2"x4" for 25 cents an inch.
Just use "clearance items" in the search box and then pick your poison. Scored some other stuff too, taps, bolts, inline fuses, mega 200A are going for just over $2

 

[e9999]

Too much time and money IMO.

J

OK, but was thinking along the lines of a torch... Can't be that bad

 

[GLTHFJ60]

OK, but was thinking along the lines of a torch... Can't be that bad

What kind of torch?

It doesn't take a lot of energy to make a 14 gauge piece of steel glow, but to make a 3/16, 1/4 or 3/8" sheet glow takes a bunch more (heat) energy, and more importantly, time, both to heat up and cool down. This is without considering how you're changing the internal structure of the metal by heating it up.

Finally, the torch costs $, as does the fuel to run the torch. I imagine it'd be easier to build a press that can form whatever thickness steel you want than it would to heat each sheet, otherwise we'd see larger machine shops / fab shops practice preheating before bending (we don't).

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

What kind of torch?

It doesn't take a lot of energy to make a 14 gauge piece of steel glow, but to make a 3/16, 1/4 or 3/8" sheet glow takes a bunch more (heat) energy, and more importantly, time, both to heat up and cool down. This is without considering how you're changing the internal structure of the metal by heating it up.

Finally, the torch costs $, as does the fuel to run the torch. I imagine it'd be easier to build a press that can form whatever thickness steel you want than it would to heat each sheet, otherwise we'd see larger machine shops / fab shops practice preheating before bending (we don't).

X2 ^^ agree 1000% YES 1000%... Screw the torch... I just throw another 32T jack on top of the punch die HA!

J