Building A Sheet Metal Bending Brake

Dave s cheap sheet metal bending brake i started building my zenith ch601xl from plans in mid january 2006.

Building a sheet metal bending brake.

The unit as shown is approximately 82 tip to tip has a working surface he. Need to bend sheet metal. However as i had designed the brake the bending point was 1 8 above the pivot point of the hinge see left side of drawing. Sheet metal brakes are machines designed to make bending thin metal into shapes for use in projects such as house siding eaves air conditioning ductwork and others.

Kaka industrial mb 36 36 inch sheet metal bending brake solid construction with steel frame stand high precision 20 gauge mild steel capacity 4 1 out of 5 stars 6 389 00. X research source this project will help you build a simple sheet metal brake for bending small work for those who prefer to do it yourself. It s really easy to build a simple diy metal brake. At this point it became apparent that i had made a mistake in the original design of the brake.

Most frequently expensive sheet metal bending tools called brakes are used to bend sheet metal but you can also complete this task without one. The sheet metal is clamped under a piece of. After several failed attempts to bend the rudder spar i ended up going to a local sheet metal shop for help. The problem with that is that their equipment is not set up for the 1 8 inch radius bend specified in the plans.

Learning how to work with sheet metal can open up a lot of potential for practical projects. It makes crisp clean bends on sheet metal up to 22 ga for great looking results. Subscribe to my channel. I love building tools.

Build a sheet metal brake. There s been more than a few times i ve needed to bend metal and i ve resorted to clamping 2x4s together and using a hammer. It s made from a few pieces of hardwood to form the base and hinged handle. In this video i show how to build a metal brake with a 72 inch working capacity.

Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle.