Home made sheet metal brake.

[Jon Jacobs]

Hi, here is my completed sheet metal brake I made essentially from trailer hitch tubes and "I" beams.

The entire unit bolts to my fab table. Uses a compact bottle jack to drive the lower jaw which applies load.

The swing arm is adjustable for different thicknesses of metal.

 

[LXCam]

Damn, that's pretty cool!. Have you found out what the thickest gauge you can bend yet?.

 

[Jon Jacobs]

Hi, Thank you. The thickest I have done is .0625 cold rolled but it worked well.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Awesome and that thing looks like a work of art.

 

[Jon Jacobs]

Thanks !

 

[bbcc]

Nice work! Some good craftsmanship went into that.

Also, wicked looking shop! So clean!

 

[sberry]

How wide? My neighbor built a couple and one was just short of being able to put full size appliance steel thru it but it worked well. Nice job on this. I had been waiting out for a deal to fall too, one of the new tools I might take woiuld be a Cinci finger brake and if I had to spend up would consider the magna bend for custom work,,, or build something like this.

 

[Jon Jacobs]

Thank you, I like the challenge.

 

[Jon Jacobs]

Hi, Its a 24" unit. I had to use the footprint of my welding table. Its actually a very simple but effective design. I just collected materials over time and built it as I could.

I had most of the parts nickle plated or powder coated.

 

[ovrrdrive]

Awesome... I think that's going to be copied a few times... lol

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Holy cow that's a beefy unit. Nice work!

 

[gregtwojeeps]

WOW, that is some fine machine work. I bet it bent the 15 gauge easy.

 

[rharman]

That is a clean build. Really like the stops too.

 

[drivesitfar]

JJ: AWESOME build. did you make any of the parts on your huge lathe? any chance you took a few pictures of before with all the parts laying on a table?

i for one would love to see a bunch of pictures or a video of it in action.

WELL DONE SIR!!

 

[Jon Jacobs]

Hi, Thanks so much. I will see what I can find for pictures, Best Jon.

 

[PelicanPines]

Official NIFTY award!!! Few have gotten one... yours is deserved.

 

[drivesitfar]

JJ: no hurry on the pictures, but if you have time of the tool in action and any before and during build pics you might have would be great. Like Pines says your work is like ART cause it's not only a perfectly functioning tool it is PURDY too.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING even though i don't think you guys across the boarder celebrate it like we do. if you ever get a urge to see Seattle around this time of year we've usually got a couple extra chairs and always lots of turkey and fixins to go around.

cheers

 

[brownbagg]

i need to bent 11 gauge (1/8) 36 inches long. had to do it last time with a track hoe and a terra loader

 

[Jon Jacobs]

now thats resourceful !

 

[BMW Rider]

Nice bit of fabrication there. My home made brake is nowhere near as fancy, but it works well up to the .040 aluminum and 20 gauge sheet metal that I use it for.

 

[James-W]

You certainly win first prize for "Cool Build" of the year.

 

[NASTYZEN]

Real nice piece of equipment you built yourself.

 

[f150skidoo]

That's a really nice looking brake you made. Its kinda funny that I'm reading this thread since im drawing up a 4ft wide 38 ton press brake on CAD basically as I type this.

 

[dubcanuck1]

Nice backdrop to the brake too!

 

[southalabama]

Wow. Was expecting to see a little 12" piece of angle iron brake.

That is professional and awesome design.

 

[iajonesy]

Do you have a set of drawings or plans for it and a materials list? I'd like to fab one up for myself.

Mike

 

[steel 35]

Very nice build.

 

[Iron-Iceberg]

Hmm, I've been thinking of a design to build a 40+" brake and never though of putting the rams on the bottom. I like the idea that the weight of the bed would help close the rams. The springs hanging down get stretched over time and will not pull the top blade up.
F150skidoo I would like to see what ideas you have too.

 

[racer-john]

Nice work on that metal bender.
Also nice to see more fellow Canuks here.

 

[doctordirt]

Nice job.

 

[Jazz1]

Fellow I met years ago made 6' brake from old grader blades that show up at scrapyard or sourced through heavy equipment shop.

 

[Kevin54]

I don't know how I seem to miss these cool threads.

Jon....do you have any drawings or a blueprint of it that you would care to share? If you did, I imagine a few people would like to copy your idea. Me for one.

 

[2mJps]

Good job i sold my 12' long brake and i want to buy or build a 5' or 6' brake. I wonder now a 6' built like this would work out?