KwikFab
Well-known member
Hello group.
I don't normally do this for products, since you can often find information and videos on just about everything out there. But I figured some of you could benefit from what I have to share.
I want to add that I'm just a regular dude working out of his garage; I am in no way affiliated with Trick Tools and they did not ask me to post a video or even share my experience with them or the product purchased.
Being a disabled veteran puts me at a disadvantage having to be mindful of how spending is done with tools which usually means I'm doing as much research as I can before committing. In this particular case, there weren't any threads or even videos on this press brake so I thought I would help others in my situation by sharing my own experience.
To preface: since working for myself out of my garage, I found myself from time to time being asked to provide bent parts. Before I ever got into bending metal with the help of other tools, my only real means for bending was with relief cuts done via a mini cut off tool or angle grinder.
It wasn't until I got myself a CNC table that I strictly switched my operation to relief cuts all done via CNC as it was much easier and far more precise.
Here are some examples -
As I began to offer more work, the demand grew for things such as skid plates, custom mounts, and more. That's when I invested in the Swag Off Road HD finger kit and Harbor Freight's 20 ton press.
It was great as now I had the ability to bend thick steel without the use of relief cuts which mean I was able to add more to the menu.
However, it fell short as I still had a large demand for smaller bent parts done on thinner material.
Even if it was something I was making for myself, I was left extremely disappointed with the large bend radius it would create. This is an angle grinder holder I had made for my welding table out of 16 gauge -
I followed the advice given which was to stack angle iron on top of one another. I went as far as to making my own sort of bottom die by welding up smaller angle offset on rectangular tubing; it barely made a difference.
So the Swag kit got boxed up, the press sold off, and back to relief cuts.
The downfall with having to do relief cuts is that, you would need to perform a rather large cut on really thick metals if you want to keep it from warping. This also meant that the part itself is weaker which means it needs to be welded up.
In turn, this meant more work.
I don't normally do this for products, since you can often find information and videos on just about everything out there. But I figured some of you could benefit from what I have to share.
I want to add that I'm just a regular dude working out of his garage; I am in no way affiliated with Trick Tools and they did not ask me to post a video or even share my experience with them or the product purchased.
Being a disabled veteran puts me at a disadvantage having to be mindful of how spending is done with tools which usually means I'm doing as much research as I can before committing. In this particular case, there weren't any threads or even videos on this press brake so I thought I would help others in my situation by sharing my own experience.
To preface: since working for myself out of my garage, I found myself from time to time being asked to provide bent parts. Before I ever got into bending metal with the help of other tools, my only real means for bending was with relief cuts done via a mini cut off tool or angle grinder.
It wasn't until I got myself a CNC table that I strictly switched my operation to relief cuts all done via CNC as it was much easier and far more precise.
Here are some examples -
As I began to offer more work, the demand grew for things such as skid plates, custom mounts, and more. That's when I invested in the Swag Off Road HD finger kit and Harbor Freight's 20 ton press.
It was great as now I had the ability to bend thick steel without the use of relief cuts which mean I was able to add more to the menu.
However, it fell short as I still had a large demand for smaller bent parts done on thinner material.
Even if it was something I was making for myself, I was left extremely disappointed with the large bend radius it would create. This is an angle grinder holder I had made for my welding table out of 16 gauge -
I followed the advice given which was to stack angle iron on top of one another. I went as far as to making my own sort of bottom die by welding up smaller angle offset on rectangular tubing; it barely made a difference.
So the Swag kit got boxed up, the press sold off, and back to relief cuts.
The downfall with having to do relief cuts is that, you would need to perform a rather large cut on really thick metals if you want to keep it from warping. This also meant that the part itself is weaker which means it needs to be welded up.
In turn, this meant more work.
