Build Yourself a Press Brake
Posted by Paul Woodhouse at December 7th, 2005
Are you interested in building yourself a small press brake for use around the home?
I’m quite sure some of you are.
Anyway, here are some plans from 1958 in the form of a pdf which shows you how to go about it.
And here are the specs of the thing as specified on the Vintage Projects website:
This press brake is small-shop size, makes those clean, sharp bends in sheet metal that will delight the eye of a craftsman who has had to improvise methods of bending.
It takes light sheet metals up to 17 in. wide. The hold-down blade moves at an angle of 45 deg. to the bed and adjusts automatically to the thickness of the materials to be bent. The blade is slotted to provide the clearances necessary to permit raising, in successive steps, ½-in. flanges on the four sides of the work, as in forming a box or tray, radio chassis, motor base, or similar work.
A retractable stop at the 90-deg. position permits the operator to make repetitive right-angle bends. The throat opens to 5/16 in. to admit flanged parts. All main parts except the table, or base, are made from cold-rolled stock.
Yes but the minute you have this thing, you want to make a box 18 long. So then you make one 24″ long and low and behold you need something 2′4″. And it keeps going. I’ve managed to get keys to the local shop by promising to teach the green sods basic metal stuff on Monday nights, but they only have a 3′ brake there. Luckily Kobi took pitty on me and let me come over to Boyer Metal where I got most of my bending done on a 6′ break except for one part that still was too big. Luckily I was able to beg time on their nice 14′ break for it. Seems to have me covered since the plasma table will only cut pieces up to 8′.
I do have a little 14″ shear that comes in handy for trimming those last few triangles to fit in the geodesic sphere. Still would love to have my own plasma cutter though …
Funnily enough, Derek, there’s a post somewhere around these blog parts to a guy who made his own laser cutter.
Could any body help me in building a large sheet metal brake from scratch? Thank you
Could any body help me in building a large sheet metal brake from scratch? Thank you
Im working on a paper to find out the process of making sheet metal. From rock, to liquid, to mold, to store. Well we all know the process, but i cant seem to find any good sites. maybe you can give me one or two that you might have ran into.
thanks
Jose, L.S. - speaking as a metallurgical engineer, the making of steel is a very elaborate process, even before you get down to the rolling into sheet metal.
One of the best books to describe the process was printed by US Steel Corporation and is titled “The Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel”. It is a large thick reference book that should be available at most larger libraries or maybe on loan from one.
Good Luck, It took me 6 years of engineering school to understand the process.