Sheet Metal Brake
 

Our team is interested in purchasing a sheet metal brake. There was a similar thread a couple years back here. Wanted to revive that discussion.

We want a box & pan brake (as opposed to a press brake). Ideally we'd be able to bend up to 0.09" aluminum. My best understanding indicates that's roughly equivalent to a capacity of 12 ga. for mild steel. We want something at least 3' wide. There isn't a budget for this right now, but some searches indicate it would need to be in the range of a few thousand dollars.

What are reputable sheet metal machine brands?
With sheet metal brakes, would it be better to buy used?
If you have a brake with similar specifications, what brand/model is it and do you like it?

An initial search suggests these two might be good. I've also used a Tennsmith I liked. Any thoughts on those in particular?

Re: Sheet Metal Brake
 

When you get one make sure you look into getting fingers with a radius. We retrofitted our Chicago 412-6 with new 3/32 radius fingers and it works much better. The only catch is that the new fingers were close to $1000 by themselves. Perhaps see if you can order with these kinds of fingers.

We bend a great deal of aluminum with it. Our designs are based on using flat sheet cut on our waterjet and the brake.

Re: Sheet Metal Brake
 

If you don't have the larger radius fingers, you can put a piece of aluminum under them to increase the radius...but it's kind of a flaky way to do it.

you meant 3' not 3" wide, right? :)

Re: Sheet Metal Brake
 

Spinal Tap made a mistake like that...

Re: Sheet Metal Brake
 

we have that same Baileigh brake the BB-4012.
it works well but the only caution I have is that the fingers and the table are NOT hardened steel. You can dent them if not used properly.
We have a God knows how old 24 inch desk top box and pan brake that has fingers that look like new yet, they are hardened.
If you go with the Baileigh make sure you get the educational discount.
the one thing nice about the Beileigh is that it is counterballanced with springs rather than weights. Much more compact and you can't accidentally conk somebody on the head with a 15 lb weight.

Re: Sheet Metal Brake
 

We have an old Pexto box and pan brake that's about 24" wide capacity and weighs probably 600 lbs. We did 1/8" 5052 on it yesterday with a tiny radius set of dies and it went pretty nicely.

Re: Sheet Metal Brake
 

Interesting, thanks for the tips. We'll definitely keep an eye out for that then.

We've had relative success with lots of tube designs, but this year discovered just how quickly we can put things together with plasma-cutting and bending. Having a brake in-house would accelerate that to another level.

And yes, I did mean 3', although I suppose that's included under "at least 3 inches" :)

Good tip, thanks. How long have you had it? It has held up well?

The previous thread mentioned Pexto as a good brand. Is it this one?

Re: Sheet Metal Brake
 

we have had the Baileigh about 2 years
lots of dings and scratches because it is not hardened but the rest is fine

it will easily bend .125 5052.