Bend 10 ga without a press brake?

[BigBoyToys]

In the future im going to make a makeshift press brake kit for my workshop press.... But only for flatbar, not long pieces of sheetmetal because its too hard to keep the die absolutely level over its length. For sheetmetal, a press brake allways wins hands down.

I made myself a brake as well to handle flatbar.
Was doing some fabrication on a Jeep project with my son and needed to bend some stock.
Works great with an inexpensive HF 20 Ton Press.

 

[Renze]

I made myself a brake as well to handle flatbar.
Was doing some fabrication on a Jeep project with my son and needed to bend some stock.
Works great with an inexpensive HF 20 Ton Press.

Have you ever used it to bend over the entire length of your dies, and how well is the angle ? I suppose it starts to sag towards the middle so the outer ends arent bent as sharp as the middle... In brake presses they have developed models with pulleys that distribute the press force along the length of the jaws, to prevent this, but most heavy 6 yard models have their lower jaws sunken into an underground pit, a huge chunk of steel to keep the bend angle the same over the entire length...

For flatbar it will be the perfect tool, but i have my doubts about the parallellity unless some real tight slide pins and bushings are used... ??

 

[jwmorris]

I have a press punted brake I built that bends fine end to end (center included) but didn't mention it because it will only bend 24" and the OP was looking to bend 60" (wider that most presses a fellow might have in his shop).

Might be able to get 19" one in a HF press...

 

[BigBoyToys]

Have you ever used it to bend over the entire length of your dies, and how well is the angle ?

The heaviest material I've bent is the bracket in the pictures above. The 90* bend was nice and straight. As far as "entire Length of the die", the widest I've bent was a piece of 1/8" thick steel 11.5" to 90* and the bend was straight across the length.

 

[Buty]

Well, here's the finished product. The shop charged me $60 to make the bends. A new coat of paint does wonders. It's up for sale now if anyone's interested.

 

[GPintheMitten]

Nice job.

 

[Buty]

Finally figured out how to post in the TBN classified section so it is now for sale there.

 

[DFB]

Nice job...looks exactly original

 

[Buty]

Thanks for the compliments guys.