Sheet metal fabrication tools

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by Wayne Doenges

Remember sheet aluminum usually comes in 48" widths. A 30" shear won't work.

Our local sheet metal supplier gives us free cuts (if I remember right my story right), and will strip the material down for us into 1' x 4' strips, or smaller. This makes it much more manageable for us.

[protoserge]

A set of Cleco clamps go a long way to lining up rivet holes and keeping things square. Look on eBay for some great deals - everything to get started for about $50-75.

Grizzly is a little better on quality, but not the best. Import or domestic, it doesn't matter. Price and brand is more relevant to quality since the Chinese factories will meet the specified price point and make tradeoffs to meet schedule, demand, and specifications. Typical US importers want the lowest cost possible, and that's when quality lacks.

Swag Offroad has a shop press brake kit you might want to check out (it may or may not meet your requirements - it does require welding). The Harbor Freight 20 ton shop press is about $160 on sale.

I check Craigslist nearly every day for miscellaneous metalworking tools. Press brakes and shears are a rare item now that many fabricators have long-ago switched to large multi-ton hydraulic systems.

Also, glad to see you are venturing into sheet metal!

[JamesCH95]

Disclaimer: I'm no sheet metal expert, this is just what I've found over the years of general fabrication in FRC and FSAE.

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

For those that have a press brake in-house, what do you have and up to what length and thickness can you bend for 6061 Aluminum and/or 5052 Aluminum?

We don't have a sheet metal brake in-house, but I would really like to have one so that we can bend more parts...

Based on the reviews for the heftiest brake on HF (http://www.harborfreight.com/36-inch...nd-91012.html), it sounds like folks can usually bend 16ga (.050" AL), but it will often struggle with sizes up to 12ga (.080" AL). Does anyone have experience with this bender, and if so, what do you think its limitations are? What thickness can it handle if they're short little brackets (bend length ~2" maybe)?

We have a finger brake in-house. We have comfortably bent up to 1/8in 6061, never tried more. A finger brake offers some advantages over a press brake, including the ability to do more complex bends that a press-brake might require special tooling for and the ability to change bend radius without changing tooling.

One doesn't really need the shears or roller IMO. Straight cuts in sheet metal (and cuts considerably more complex that shears can do) can be made with a tool like an air nibbler and a clamped straight-edge. I've never felt the need to use a roller or bead roller (though we have both in our shop) and a CNC plasma cutter has all but completely supplanted the 4ft+ air-powered shears we have.

If I were to be picking machines from scratch I would get a large CNC router table and the finger brake.

Thinking about it... we may try using the bead roller this pre-season to see how we like it.

Originally Posted by stinglikeabee

A set of Cleco clamps go a long way to lining up rivet holes and keeping things square. Look on eBay for some great deals - everything to get started for about $50-75.

Grizzly is a little better on quality, but not the best. Import or domestic, it doesn't matter. Price and brand is more relevant to quality since the Chinese factories will meet the specified price point and make tradeoffs to meet schedule, demand, and specifications. Typical US importers want the lowest cost possible, and that's when quality lacks.

Swag Offroad has a shop press brake kit you might want to check out (it may or may not meet your requirements - it does require welding). The Harbor Freight 20 ton shop press is about $160 on sale.

I check Craigslist nearly every day for miscellaneous metalworking tools. Press brakes and shears are a rare item now that many fabricators have long-ago switched to large multi-ton hydraulic systems.

Also, glad to see you are venturing into sheet metal!

I have the slightly smaller version of this, without fingers, in my garage. I have bent 3-4in widths of 1/4in bronze with it. Very capable and easy to use machine, especially when paired with a hydraulic ram like this one like I have done.

The advantage of a setup like this (vs a combo machine) is that broaching, pressing in bearings, etc are all now very easy to do. Though the longest possible bend has gotten smaller.