Trying to help an Amish friend

[Captain Spaulding]

Friend of mine with no internet access is trying to figure out a better way to make some parts for his farm equipment business.

He currently makes a lot of brackets for farm equipment out of 10 gauge mild steel. Small pieces, 4" or so by 8" or so generally. Often needs a 3/4" to 2" lip bent on the edges. He has a manual shop press brake that does the job, but is taking a lot of time. Keeping his son busy most of the day. He'd like to step up to a better press finger brake that can do the job faster, but what I'm seeing is that the next step up is a larger, more power hungry machine.

Is there such a thing as a small (24"?) press finger brake that is powered and strong enough for 10 gauge steel? Or is there a better tool for the job?

 

[purplezr2]

Shop press brake?

 

[56Safari]

What about one of the swag off road kits for a 20 ton press with an air over hydraulic jack to speed things up a bit. It’s 19.25” across and can bend the full width @ 11 gauge. They have a finger brake version also

http://www.swagoffroad.com/SWAG-Press-Brake-Kits_c_53.html



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[bugnut]

modified log splitter?

 

[Captain Spaulding]

What about one of the swag off road kits for a 20 ton press with an air over hydraulic jack to speed things up a bit. It’s 19.25” across and can bend the full width @ 11 gauge. They have a finger brake version also

http://www.swagoffroad.com/SWAG-Press-Brake-Kits_c_53.html



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I think that's what he has. He bought an air/hydraulic jack to add to his press thinking it would speed up operations but it doesn't finish the bend. He's just not sure how much power he needs to get the job done, or whether a straight hydraulic shop press would be the right choice. He has hydraulic flow available in his shop from a Diesel power unit with a pump.

 

[MattT]

I think that's what he has. He bought an air/hydraulic jack to add to his press thinking it would speed up operations but it doesn't finish the bend. He's just not sure how much power he needs to get the job done, or whether a straight hydraulic shop press would be the right choice. He has hydraulic flow available in his shop from a Diesel power unit with a pump.

You can guesstimate the tonnage required by seeing how hard the existing jack has to be pumped to complete the bends.

Then check what hydraulic pressure is available from his power unit. IME most presses and jacks run at higher pressure than that available from most HPUs so you'll probably have to overspecify nameplate tonnage to end up with enough at the available line pressure. To be thorough you also need to check available flowrate but I'm guessing that'll be a non issue unless there is other equipment running at the same time.

 

[Flail]

Ironworker with a pressbrake. May have to configure the pump to run off a gasoline engine to make it Amish friendly.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

Ironworker with a pressbrake. May have to configure the pump to run off a gasoline engine to make it Amish friendly.

This looks perfect for what he does. Thank you! Not my area of knowledge so I was having no luck searching.

Power isn't an issue. He runs a Deere power unit with a generator, compressor and hydraulic pump. They don't have a problem with electricity, it's just having to depend on an outside source for it. Of course he depends on an outside source for the Diesel fuel that runs it, but it doesn't have to make sense to me.

 

[BD1]

Can you get square tube of the size and cut to his dimensions ? Maybe light gauge ''C" channel will work.
He would probably be money ahead to go to fab shop and have them made to order.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

Can you get square tube of the size and cut to his dimensions ? Maybe light gauge ''C" channel will work.
He would probably be money ahead to go to fab shop and have them made to order.

He modifies commercial farm equipment so it can be moved and worked by horses, so it's usually fairly custom stuff and often needs some prototyping rather than production.

 

[matt_i]

Ironworker is going to be pretty expensive but useful in other ways as well. Very easy to drop 5 figures into a newer model.

Diacro makes a manual press brake (forget tonnage) that uses ratchet and then compound leverage sort of like an arbor press.

I think Foredom makes small full-featured press brakes that run off 120vac power, maybe its a Bantam that I'm thinking of.

HGR Surplus in Cleveland usually has a variety of press brakes, Diacro also has some Hydra-Mechanical models.

As mentioned above it all comes down to how sharp the bend has to be and how close the "V" block is made. Bending to a bigger radius is of course less.

I recall some toolmakers sawing up a block of delrin to make a punch and die out of a monolithic block to make some "lemon peel" pieces of 1-1/2 x 16 steel strip or so, then using it in a hydraulic press to make ~200 of them very fast. This was of course a very gradual bend but the point is the more gradual the bend the less the tonnage.

Flat bar can also be bent sharply using a traditional Hossfeld or Diacro (#4 is probably the only one big enough) rotary bender, using the square shoe in the center. Diacro also has 2 versions of the bender which are hydraulicall powered, #6 and #8. Of course those are bends in flat bar and not bends that make something like an angle iron.

 

[lightn95]

What about this?

https://weldtables.com/products/certiflat-fabpress-diy-press-brake

 

[MP&C]

The Diacro in the background......

Is a manual machine that I believe is rated at 8 tons, 2' wide, and has a back stop to assist in repeat bends. For the 4" and 8" widths you mention that he was bending in 10 gauge, I think this machine would serve him well..

 

[Jim greengo]

Has he tried heating them up first?

 

[Nor'Easter]

He needs a 6-7 ton arbor press, and some tooling.

6" of 10g takes just over 5 ton with a V die width of 1.25".

 

[FishingMan]

Also recommend the swag offroad finger brake kit for his press. Thing is awesome at bending up brackets.