Cheap Sheet Metal brake

Jim Thompson Inscribed thus:

Do you want to build your own ?

I'd rather buy. ...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, CTO | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

Harbor freight.

Grizzly tool

Ain't American made... but few things are these days. I have their hand pumped hydraulic wood splitter. Works very well and lots simpler when working with knotty wood that won't split nicely with a maul.

Bob Oppenheimer

Few consumer items that are American made -- but the machines that made the machines that made those brakes probably are (or German, etc). At least for now.

Hopefully when they reach wage parity with us we'll still remember how to make stuff. Maybe we'll even realize the foolishness of letting our union help price us out of the world market.

Or we can all go into prostitution, the ultimate service industry.

=A0 =A0 =A0 ...Jim Thompson

At that price it wouldn't even make sense to try and build one.

I'd like a press brake I think the bends usually look better and symmetric but unless it uses a rubber die it leaves marks and it is a lot more expensive

-Lasse

Press brakes are a lot more expensive:

What I sometimes do is cover contact surfaces of tools with hard plastic. Kapton works quite well but of course that's expensive.

Try Eastwood. They cater to automotive restoration/customizers but they do (last time I checked) have small brakes. I have an 18" one, does light steel and aluminum, but nothing really heavy is possible.

Maybe I need to find someone to consult that has a machine shop ;-) My 10 years at GenRad Portable Products were a joy for G-jobs... go into a full-fledged machine shop after hours... punch presses, lathes, band saw, drill press, milling machine, fancy brake with moveable shoes... "pants wetting" ;-) ...Jim Thompson

Bob already recommended the places I would suggest looking for fine mainland Chinese tools... of course HF is local to you and you can go in and have a gander at the merchandise and maybe pick out a relatively good one. Grizzly is perhaps a bit higher quality, but not always.

I'm not clear on whether you need a folder or a "box and pan" brake (or finger brake) which allows you to bend.. umm... boxes and pans.. because you can remove bits of the male die to allow space for the folded parts to fit.

I have a cute little 12" version of this behemoth:

which *cuts* thin aluminum like butter, also easily bends shapes like boxes and even more complex shapes etc. (you can also apparently do things with the rolls, which I've not attempted) it also cuts PCB material (but probably not for long..)

These guys seem to have a version of it:

and this guy

I paid about $225 including shipping from HF years ago, and Grizzly used to carry it (but no longer) (apparently the Grizzly one would not cut a full 12" (probably metric) so it p*ssed off people who ordered

Anyway, you have choices from $20 to $1000. All are "cheap" by comparison with good US-made stuff. Even well-used specimens of such.

Less than $3 a roll from China. LOL.

What size roll? I didn't pay a whole lot more for mine but it's the size of a roll of masking tape. Takes a lot to cover a brake. Plus you want the good stuff that holds up, like 3M.

Well, I don't buy stuff like that at Digikey :-)

Jim Thompson Inscribed thus:

Ok. I have a set of plans for a DIY machine that I built, and thought might interest you.

Yeah, but you have to buy 6 rolls to get a $6.50/roll price, then add

Actually that place doesn't have bad pricing on genuine 3M transfer tape in bite-size ($40-$60) portions. Most places want to cut up a 48" wide roll into your desired roll widths so it ends up being $400+ US to buy a roll of tape, which is a bit excessive to make a few prototypes. Thanks for the link, Joerg.

Sure. Send or post them. ...Jim Thompson

Jim Thompson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Google is your friend. 8-)