Sheet Metal Manual Brake Press

[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