Press brake vs Finger Brake

[cbones62]

I am just a hobbyist, and am completely new to metalworking. I have read through all the threads I could find on press brakes, and searched the internet, but I can’t find a direct answer to this simple question on finger brake vs press brake.

I understand that a finger is used for boxes, pans etc. My question is, is there anything you can do with a press brake that you can’t do with a finger brake? Specifically I am looking at the SWAG offroad kits. Other than cost, is there any reason not to buy the finger brake? I don’t want to buy the cheaper one, and then decide later that I need the finger brake, but I don’t want to buy the finger brake if I am giving up some features or ease of use that I am not aware of.
Thanks,
Chuck

 

[dr_clyde]

With the appropriate dies, you can form just about anything with a press brake. You will find this is the workhorse of professional sheetmetal shops. Granted, they are not using the swag one, rather, dedicated machines and tooling. But the concept is the same.

Box and pan brakes are more useful in one off sheetmetal stuff for auto body or that kind of light gauge work. I feel like these kind of brakes are only really useful if you plan on working in 16 ga or thinner, and even then, it takes a good one to get repeatable bends. These brakes shine in HVAC work. Its much faster to make small bends in weird angles with a box and pan brake.

If you have the tonnage and tooling, a press brake is more versatile. By far. But a properly tooled brake can get expensive. A box and pan brake has all its tooling installed, and is generally less expensive.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Press brakes are for thick materials. Even with the force of a hydraulic press, you may have to "relieve" the inside of tight radii on thick material.

For a DIYer, first decide the material (stainless, mild steel, etc) and maximum thickness you are going to deal with.

Second, determine the width.


Metal brakes go hand in hand with shears and I am not referring to a hand shear, which do have their place (just not for long straight cuts).

 

[srmofo]

He's referring to a finger press brake. Yes it will do all that the press brake will. Just load all of the fingers needed for the width.

I have the HD swag finger kit and its a nice kit. Obviously it could be built much cheaper, but you have to have a way to accuaretly grind the point onto the die. There is a list of thickness of material and width somewhere on their sitr

 

[bimmer1980]

I have the roper whitney 412 box and pan brake. It is a beast!! It has movable fingers and then a straight bending apron when all the fingers are removed. It takes up a sizable foot print......

I also recently purchased a DiAcro 16-24 manual press brake. It came with a few dies.

The box and pan brake is really for that--making box shapes and pans. It excels at those types of bends in the lighter gauge sheet metal.

The press brake is better for the really odd things. You can set up the dies in short sections to reach things that you just can't do with a box and pan brake.

You need tonnage to do thicker steel for structural brackets etc... keep that in mind....

Typically you can find a "folding table" or "box and pan" brake easier and cheaper than a press brake. (altho I did get a nice deal on my little press brake)

The best thing to do is to figure out what type of stuff you want to make and add your tooling to suit.

Perhaps start off with one of those small vise mounted bending tooling and then work your way up.

I was fortunate enough to work with some box and pan brakes in high school and college to get a sense of how they work and their limitations.

I also have a 10'6" trim brake that is used for aluminum or very light steel trim work. I have used that a lot to make the trim pieces for my garage. This is 29 gauge steel that is pushing the limit..... it is better suited for aluminum trim....

 

[dv8customs]

Spend the little extra and get the finger brake version. I have it and never needed that option until yesterday. I would not have been able to make the needed bends without the fingers.

 

[astroracer]

Ditto on the finger brake suggestion. It does the same work as a fingerless brake but adds so much vesatility the little extra in cost is well worth it. I have the Swag press brake which I bought before the finger brake came out. I also have a HF 3 n 1 machine which is a finger brake, shear, roll combo machine. I use both with excellant results and have made custom fingers for the HF unit for making closed front boxes. Doing that just adds that much more versatility.
Mark

 

[cbones62]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer my question. I learned a few things, and it was especially helpful to hear from the people that own the SWAG kit.

 

[Whiskeymike]

Ditto on the finger brake suggestion. It does the same work as a fingerless brake but adds so much vesatility the little extra in cost is well worth it. I have the Swag press brake which I bought before the finger brake came out. I also have a HF 3 n 1 machine which is a finger brake, shear, roll combo machine. I use both with excellant results and have made custom fingers for the HF unit for making closed front boxes. Doing that just adds that much more versatility.
Mark

Can you post a picture of your custom fingers? I've been thinking about building a die cover for changing the radius of the bend.

 

[justafurnaceman]

My SWAG finger brake just came in yesterday and I picked up the HF shop press this morning. I would be interested in seeing what you guys have made with it.

 

[SM Racing]

How useful is the smaller finger type brake? I have a press brake I built that will span 21in and I use it to do .125-.500 plate. Its been used for sheet but the lower die is really too wide for tight bends in sheet.

I am looking for a regular sheetmetal finger brake and keep thinking I need the 36 or 48in versions. I don't do long pieces mostly small stuff for cars and other projects, but I figured I can't go wrong with a 48-52 just in case I come across that long piece once in a while. Thoughts on the smaller sizes 12,24,36?

 

[astroracer]

Starting with a sheet of .090 aluminum. I laid out the box and cut it out.

The box is fully enclosed and has 3/4" wide flanges on the inside for the lid to bolt to.

Doing all of the bends was no problem until it came to closing up the last two sides.
The top flanges just wouldn't let the 8" finger pass to do the complete bend. I got about 15 degrees out of it.

I made a couple of 2 1/2" wide stepped fingers so the flange will slide past the finger and let us complete the bend. Here they are mounted in the brake.

My friend Mel making the fingers on the bandsaw.

Here you can see the opposite side is already bent and the last one is well on it's way.

All bent up and welded corners

With all of the components laid out.

Mounted in the van.

With the cover installed.

 

[astroracer]

My HF Combo does 30" wide. I've had very little need for anything bigger. I have done 18ga bends in the machine with no problem.
Some of the stuff I've made with it.
These are tunnels to clear the upper bars for the 4 link I built for the van

After a few trips through the rolls I had a shape that was close.

After the piece comes off the rolls I need to do a little "sweetening".

Clamping the piece to the bench so I can hand bend it to straighten out the profile. That's a piece of 1 x 2 tubing clampes on the tin.

Here you can see the profile is pretty darn close. This took about 15 minutes from layout to formed piece.

Sweet!

Mocked up in van.

two tunnels built and mocked up.

Mark

 

[EdT]

I have a 24" DiAcro finger brake for sheet metal and 24" pneumatic press brake and I use them both occasionally. The operation of the finger brake is much more straight forward than the press brake. The press brake takes a lot more set up to get the desired results. I recently did a run of 120 parts out of 1" x 3/16" CRS and had planned to use the press brake. I was not able to control the bend tolerances (+ - .010")well enough and ended up making a die set I used on my hydraulic 20 ton press. Of course, the finger break would be unhappy with material that thick. So, as said above, it depends on what you are planning to do. If you are doing heavy iron work, a press brake is what you need. If you're doing sheet metal work you may find the finger brake more useful and easier to set up although a press brake with the right tooling will handle most sheet metal work. There are lots of different die sets for press brakes to do almost any bend imaginable, but they are usually not cheap.

 

[FlyingLow]

I have a 24" box and pan brake, I think a Pexto? It is great but if I had the choice I would have a larger press brake too. I built a table for my dad with 16 gauge steel and when I bent the legs (on a 48" box and pan brake at work) the ends were a true 90 degrees but closer to the middle opened up a little and need some massaging. A coworker told me that it's a fault of the brake and a press brake will not do that. I believe it's got to do with the metal being drawn around the radius and it being weaker at the end if you know what I mean. I think I was close to the maximum capacity of the brake at work too, probably affected results as well.

Also if you plan on working with aluminum you will need a radius on the nose or it will crack the material. This can be overcome by having some pieces of steel bent and putting them over the nose to give a radius.

 

[Duker]

My SWAG finger brake just came in yesterday and I picked up the HF shop press this morning. I would be interested in seeing what you guys have made with it.

+3 on the SWAG finger brake. I love it. I also just posted in another thread about converting my HF 20 Ton press from manual to air/hydraulic. Highly recommend that project.

 

[Richard D]

I love my magnetic sheet metal brake!

 

[404]

When you first mentioned press brake I thought Whoa That Man Has Money And Space.

To me this is a press brake:

If your budget allows and you are bending 16 ga (I think) and less then the magnetic brake is by far the most versatile with low tooling cost and takes up little space.

The Baileigh is a reproduction of the expired patent Magnabend

http://aaybee.com.au/Magnabend/Magnabend_Homepage.html

Plans to build your own in the link above.

 

[Tucko]

He's referring to a finger press brake. Yes it will do all that the press brake will. Just load all of the fingers needed for the width.

I have the HD swag finger kit and its a nice kit. Obviously it could be built much cheaper, but you have to have a way to accuaretly grind the point onto the die. There is a list of thickness of material and width somewhere on their sitr

Well, a press brake is a machine. You are talking about a hand brake, which is the same as a box and pan brake, but without the removable fingers. Different box and pan brakes will allow for different lengths or depths of the box sides too, so this might be a consideration.

 

[SM Racing]

That is really cool. Have you had any issues with it? Will it do small pieces of 14ga?

 

[srmofo]

Well, a press brake is a machine. You are talking about a hand brake, which is the same as a box and pan brake, but without the removable fingers. Different box and pan brakes will allow for different lengths or depths of the box sides too, so this might be a consideration.

No. These fingered press brakes are not the same as a box and pan brake. The swag finger press brake can do up to 5/8 mild steel at 3" wide. The only difference between these and "the machines" you speak of is the mechanization and capacity. You have to use a hydraulic press. It is also not a hand brake although it does function similarly.

box and pan
https://www.google.com/search?q=box...=rEaoVObtCdOBygS7vYGgAw&sqi=2&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAw

swag finger press brake

seriously, watch the video and you will see the difference.