I have very little knowledge in sheet metal brakes but found one at a yard sale for a very good price. Tapco brand. To me it looks to be designed for light gauge metal. It can handle metal up to 8 feet wide. My question is how practical would it be to modify it to handle thicker gauge metal? I don't really have a need to bend metal that is over 4 feet. I was thinking I could shorten the total length of the brake and move two clamping mechanisms that are on the end and put them between the other three which would put the five clamps much closer together. The clamps do open up enough to get thicker metal in place. But I'm not sure exactly how to modify the hinged part of the brake to make it heavier duty. Thoughts?
That is a siding brake, and it looks like a pretty old one at that. You would need to check with Tapco to see if a "refresh kit" is available.
It will bend the thin aluminum flashing coil stock as sold at the big box stores or siding supply houses. This is common in 0.019" (typical soffit) and 0.024" (typical fascia) thickness.
It is doubtful that it would bend a perfect 90 on a full 8 foot length of 0.024", and these type of brakes usually need a 1" minimum bend depth.
Bending up less than an inch, trying to hem (smash) the bend improperly (like in a regular sheet metal brake) or bending thicker material will "spring" the hinge, and it won't bend properly. You may want to get a small roll of trim coil and see if the brake is in good shape.
It will not bend 0.032" aluminum nor would I try 26 ga galvanized.
