Sheet Metal Manual Brake Press

[David Guzman]

I am looking for a sheet metal manual brake press for work. I have very little sheet metal experience and I am hoping some of you guys who have experience with these machines can point me in the right direction. This is mostly for low quantity items, we might use it on the robot as well, but not extensively.

Here are the requirements:

Bend Width: 48 inch Max
Materials: 0.030 – 0.125 Aluminum & 0.020 – 0.060 Stainless Steel

We only plan on doing 90 degree bends on it.

All suggestions are appreciated.

[Qbot2640]

.060 steel is heavy, but do-able...the .125 aluminum is extremely heavy and would require some pretty heavy duty equipment. If the thicker aluminum could be fabricated by some other means, you have many more options for something that would work.

In any event, new equipment that is good is extremely expensive...but good, used stuff is often available on Craigslist and Ebay. For bending materials that long and heavy avoid the Harbor Freight / Northern Tool stuff - it will break and/or hurt someone.

[David Guzman]

Do you have any suggestions in particular?

Even if it was only up to .090 aluminum, might still work. As for the budget, I need to get an idea of how much it would be to get something that suits our needs.

We have a Promecam RG 103 that we use for heavy duty things, but all our punches and dies are for bending 3/4" thick steel material. Buying sheetmetal dies for this machine can get pricy, not to mention the inconvenience of having to change dies for a low quantity item.

Once, I know what manual brake presses are out there for our purposes, we will decide if we get it or just get dies for our machine.

[AustinSchuh]

We bought one at an auction online that was only 24" wide, and can do up to 0.090. We learned while researching press brakes that it is very hard to find manual press brakes anymore. Good luck, and I would like to hear what you learn.

[Tem1514 Mentor]

Just had a quick look at a place I buy from but it won't do what you want but have a look at the site as it might give you some ideas.

http://www.busybeetools.com/products...N.-3-IN-1.html

[mrwright]

We were in this same position a couple of months ago. We wanted to have the ability to bend .090 aluminum and this was the best machine that we could find: http://www.grizzly.com/products/G0542

This is a beast of a machine and it bends .090. I don't know about .125 though.

[mrmummert]

I'm getting a used one from where i work for our team. They bought a new one
and we got the old one. I worked as a blacksmith for a few years (and did sheet
metal work for 2 1/2 years before that) and one thing
i learned when working with aluminum to keep in mind is that while thin
aluminum sheet metal is easy to bend...the thicker stuff is a bit tricky to
work with. If you work with anything over 1/8 inch you might need to heat
right at the area your bending or else the aluminum can crack when bent.
We've bent aluminum up to 1/4 inch after heating with little problem.

Its a bit hard to heat it and not melt it. One of the old blacksmiths showed
me how you keep heating it and checking it with a piece of wood. you keep
rubbing the wood on it (with the heat source removed) and when you see
a brown streak or smear its getting close to its melting point. Also remember
to wear gloves when heating. And to keep your fingers clear of pince points
in the brake.

If you have the money to buy a new one...thats great, but if you can't
keep your eye on auction sales or sheet metal shops that are either
going out of business or upgrading equipment. Heating and air conditioning
companies often also do their own sheet metal work. You don't need a
8' or 6' brake press...something 3' to 4' will do for robotics. Also if you can
get one that has ajustable fingers instead on one solid top brake so its
easier to make smaller parts. Here are the two basic types...

http://metal.baileighindustrial.com/...and-pan-brakes

The first one has adjustable fingers. The fourth one down has one solid
brake.

[DonRotolo]

Basically there are 2 kinds of bending machines, a "Box Pan Brake" (or just "brake") and a "Press Brake".

The box pan brake basically clamps the material and you lift an arm to bend the material. Bending 0.060 SS or .125 Al will require a fairly beefy machine, a few thousand dollars maybe.

The press brake (the one linked is quite small though) uses a high-capacity press to mush 2 pieces of angle iron together, the material to be bent is between them and gets bent in the process. These are not much more than the cost of the press, several hundred dollars for a 25-Ton press for example (not highest quality though...)

The advantage of a box pan brake is that you can bend any angle from 1 to 120 degrees. You also have 'fingers' to clamp the material selectively, allowing you to bend a box or pan. The disadvantage is higher cost, and lower capacity.

The advantage of a press brake is simplicity, low cost and high capacity. The disadvantage is you can only make 90-degree bends (although you can make a fixture for other specific angles).

[sanddrag]

We have a Pesto box and pan brake that will do about 24" wide. I estimate the machine weighs about 500 lbs. We can do .125 aluminum on it, but not more than a few inches wide. For a wide piece of .125 aluminum, you would need a rather large press brake.

[roystur44]

To make a 48" long bend in mild steel you need to generate at least 14-17 tons. That's a lot for a manual press brake. Take a look at a used 4' Di-Acro press brake. I see alot of them at auctions. Note they usually run 240V

Here is a youtube of what I'm thinking would be good for your use:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3NjSco-Xgs



For bending just 90" bends you can use a v die but if there are return flanges you'll need to use a goose neck die. For the robots you build stick with 5052 H32 aluminum. Don't use 6061 T0-T6.

Another good little press brake is the Mitsubishi Electric BAll screw press brake. They are expensive but easy to setup and have a small foot print.

http://promo.mitsubishi-world.com/pr...f/electric.pdf

[David Guzman]

Thank you all for the replies and the feedback.

Originally Posted by mrmummert

If you have the money to buy a new one...thats great, but if you can't
keep your eye on auction sales or sheet metal shops that are either
going out of business or upgrading equipment. Heating and air conditioning
companies often also do their own sheet metal work. You don't need a
8' or 6' brake press...something 3' to 4' will do for robotics.

We would like a new one or something in like new condition. It will be used mostly for R&D. Keep in mind this is not for robotics, we might use it on the robot but only as another piece of equipment from our sponsor.

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

The advantage of a press brake is simplicity, low cost and high capacity. The disadvantage is you can only make 90-degree bends (although you can make a fixture for other specific angles).

Don, thanks for the info. All we are looking to do are 90 degree bends. So this should be fine.

Originally Posted by sanddrag

We have a Pesto box and pan brake that will do about 24" wide. I estimate the machine weighs about 500 lbs. We can do .125 aluminum on it, but not more than a few inches wide. For a wide piece of .125 aluminum, you would need a rather large press brake.

The main item we need this for at the moment is a 40" wide 0.090" thick aluminum 5052.

Originally Posted by roystur44

To make a 48" long bend in mild steel you need to generate at least 14-17 tons.

How do you get these numbers? at what gauge?



As I mentioned before, we do have a Promecam RG 103, which is a 100 ton press. However, all we do on it is bend 3/4" thick steel and all very high quantities when we run it. I got a quote to get some Gooseneck Punch dies and a Staged Block die, however these dies are over $3k. Not to mention we would have to change dies on the machine every time we want to do something for R&D. I am trying to weight our options and determine what is best. If we got the dies we would be able to make bends up to 100 inches wide which is a plus.

Does any one have experience with the brakes from Baileigh?

I am looking at: http://metal.baileighindustrial.com/...brake-bb-4816e

and: http://metal.baileighindustrial.com/...-brake-bb-4816

But, even the heavy duty one can only do up to 50 thousands. Unless I am not looking at the specs correctly.

Any other suggestions?

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by David Guzman

But, even the heavy duty one can only do up to 50 thousands. Unless I am not looking at the specs correctly.

Both the 'heavy duty' and 'standard' brakes you link to have a capacity of 16 ga (0.060) mild steel (at 48" wide!), which means you can force the machine to go a little thicker. 0.090 aluminum should be OK, also at 48" wide. There are ways to bend even thicker stuff, like drilling an 1/8" relief hole every inch or so along the bend line, the effort reduction is significant.

Their bigger machine, which can do 12 ga (0.105) steel at 96" length is, unfortunately, almost $7k. This will happily bend 1/8" aluminum 8' long...

My very best advice is to call Baileigh and have a conversation with them.

Call 920-684-4990 and talk to a Baileigh Industrial representative for more information.

[David Guzman]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

My very best advice is to call Baileigh and have a conversation with them.

That's what I will do. Thanks!

[Andrew Rudolph]

We have an old Pexto shear and use it a ton and its very high quality, looks like the brand is now owned by these guys:
http://www.roperwhitney.com/
Who seem to have many professional grade sheet metal tools

[roystur44]

Dave,

Here is a tonnage chart I found. It is per linear foot so X4 for a 48 inch piece.

http://www.powerbrakedies.com/ton.html


The tonnage required depends on the radius you will be using to bend your metal and the angle you want to bend it to. There are different kinds of bending coining or air bending. Alum material really requires a 88 deg die to bend it 90 deg because the material will spring back. You could bend .090 AL using a 1/32" minimum bend radius.


Here's a video we made to show the kids how a press brake worked when we made a drive base.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1GkvsruJ8g