I used a smaller similar design to bend all the pieces for my E link on Pele' OBB (Odd Ball Bender / 100T press Brake) has 8,000 lbs of metal in it, I can't wait to get my tooling installed and test it out..
Nice one Fred, i'm working on one of similar size at the moment. Nice to see the trusses worked out. I can't afford to throw vast amounts of steel at my brake like most other DIYers do, so it nice to see that something like yours works... Saludos.
Hi Mike. Thanks! It takes up a lot of real estate in my shop, but I am always surprised how much I use it. We have a lot of 1/16" diamond plate aluminum in the house and the brake does a fine job of bending an 8-footer. Good luck with yours! Saludos igual.
Thank you Jay. Genius - I don't know about that but I did spend hours and hours analysing the issues and forces. It is still bending fine, I made some aluminum shelves yesterday.
Thank you Gary. I had little choice of metal -- a friend had some big stuff left over from a house building project and I bought what he had. I can't tell you how many months I agonized about how to make a hinge that would sustain all the torque that I knew I would throw at it. Thanks again. Fred
That is a monster. I sure wish I had enough room in my garage for one of those. It would come in handy sometimes. I'm hoping to weld up a much smaller brake with my powerimig.
Excellent, it makes a sharp, crisp angle. I worked in a union sheet metal shop - #126- s. calif. 26 gauge was what we'd make our standard ducting out of. May I suggest squirting in a shot of oil on the hinges? And cutting the corners on the floor beams back to 45* would make things safer. thumbs up / gonna see what else you've made
Yes. Too long in fact as it takes up too much shop real estate. It is too long most of the time, until I need that length to bend some 8-foot sheets! Wishing you success with you project!
+SupaLexy (SupaNautica & MotoLexy) It was a good addition to my garage, for sure. But now I have to move the beast to a new house. Glad I have strong friends!
I think I will take that as a compliment 😁. Actually I am kinda on a desert island -- I live in Panama where our options are quite limited. Kudos on your awesome purchase!
@@panamafred1 How do you like living in Panama and why did you choose it over Portugal or Croatia? More importantly, why did you choose to become an ex-pat?
@@sandercurtis1847 My wife and I have been retired here a bit more than 13 years now. We like it; the weather is good where we live in the rural mountains -- no need for heating or AC. The air is clean and fresh most of the time unless someone is burning, which happens a lot less now with education. And nature is right in our back yard -- sloths, boas, birds, you name it. We can get most of what we want within a 40-minute drive. I feel much more self-reliant here and free from the Nanny State. When we built our house, there was only one inspection -- at the end -- by the fire department who checked the main panel for correct wiring. We wish the food was better -- when was the last time you saw a Panamanian restaurant in the States? We chose Panama because it is close to the States. It is relatively safe here compared to some other Latin American countries, and we have never had a problem beyond the very-seldom Sneaky Pedro visiting us in the night to attempt petty theft. Panama uses the U.S. Dollar. When we came here, Panama had a program to attract expats and the process was quick and easy. Prices aren't the cheapest in the world, but are entitled to numerous discounts -- I used it at the dentist the other day to receive a 15% discount off a $300 root canal. And being retired, there is a special line in government offices and banks for us old people who get priority. I would love to live in Portugal, a beautiful country for sure. Croatia wasn't on the map for us at the time but understand it is lovely and affordable. Why did we chose to be expats? When my wife and I met 15 years ago, she expressed a life-long desire to live outside of the U.S.A. -- she decided that when she was 10 after writing a report on the Galapagos penguins. After writing the report, she told her parents that she wanted them to send her to the University of Mexico right then! Just a bit precocious. When we moved here, other expats moved out of the States at the same/similar time because of Bush or Obama. We moved for a new cultural experience. When I was in the service many, many years ago, I was told that I had zero aptitude for languages and that I would never speak a second one. I'm not fluent, but I can speak Spanish sufficiently to be easily understood in a conversation. I pick up and take home our gardener four days a week (I don't want him on the buses during Covid) and we have very involved discussions about a wide range of topics during the drive. It feels good to have this accomplishment. I say I speak Tarzan Spanish. We both feel that we have grown exponentially and don't see moving back to the States. So much more, but this is the short answer. I have lots of stories on my blog at panamashippingcontainerhouse.com -- just dig through the Table Of Contents. Thanks for your comment. Fred
Wow ! That is fantastic! Like a lot of other comments: the best DIY and even commercial 8 foot brake I have ever seen. Professional all the way down to the bold yellow paint job . That is so inspiring. Do you think one could bend a 2xX wall stud with such a machine ?
Thanks very much Mark. Sorry, but I just picked through the pile of scrap and picked out the pieces that I thought would work. No plan, no list. Didn't measure. Just cut, fit, welded. It is a miracle that it turned out at all. :)
the only thing to improve his design is to put a strong threaded rod with 2 nuts either side of the high point in the truss to be able to tension the week point in the truss because over time and on thicker material the angle will distort an bend
This is the biggest and most capable DiY sheet metal brake I have found so far. I attribute the crisp bends to the stiffening trusses and the pretensioning of the hold down bar. It seems curved and its ends have still a gap when the middle already touches so they need to be clamped down. Did you intensionally build this bend into it or was it a welcome result of welding distortion?
Thanks very much for your kind comment. I have to say that no, I didn't plan for the pretensioning. I am in no way a professional welder or even a technically proficient back yard welder. I just thought it through to the best of my ability. It was a total happy accident. But it sure clamps a piece down good and tight! Even after the years since I built it, it still bends crisply. Thanks again.
I'm glad that no one told me that rebar was tough to weld before I tackled the project! I'm an amateur welder at best. I guess I just stayed in the weld for a long time and got the metals very hot. I used 6011 rod. I have to admit that two welds did pop loose when I was bending 1/8" diamond plate steel for my staircase. To get the 1/8" to bend, we had to grind a groove on the backside of the steel, thereby making it closer to 1/16". Still, it took two guys working hard to make the four-foot bends in the steel steps. So much force that a couple welds popped free and made quite a loud noise when it gave way; I think that it broke the sound barrier!
I have a question if you don't mind. What thickness angle did you use? I have a 6'er that I'm working on. I used 2X2X1/4" with a 4" chanel for the bed. The 2x2x1/4 is bowing up when I start to bend a 3' piece of 29 guage. I have the hold down angle turned the same as yours. On a lot of the brakes I have looked at on you tube, they have the angle laying flat on one side of the angle. Which do you think is better? Ray
Man I've been wanting to build a brake kinda like this for about 3yrs but wasn't sure if it would bend metal thick enough for what I was wanting to do but after seeing this I know it will work..thanks man that's so cool I'm jealous .. Just one question what did you use for your hinge? someone else asked if it would take on 16ga I'm sure it would if not it would with a bit of tweaking and with 2 men working it ..I wonder about how much longer you could make it if any it sure bent that very easy looking
You are welcome. I didn't know what it would bend, either! For the hinge, at each end of the brake I used a 3/4" bolt and three nuts. I welded the bolt head and one of the nuts (the middle one) to the stand and the other two nuts to the part that swings up to bend the metal. Pay close attention to alignment -- center the bolt between the stand and the swing part. You have to grind away parts of the stand and the swing so that there is space for the bolt to center. Weld really well or they will snap off under pressure. Voice of experience.
I'm finely fixing to start building mine it's going to look mostly like your. I'm going to shoot for 16.5 feet lol I know it may not work but I'm going to try if it doesn't work right and I can't work the bugs out of it I figured I could alway cut it down to 10ft. your dose so good at 8ft I'm sure 2 guys can work one like this 10ft I hope.. I think most of the metal I'm going to be bending is going to be aluminum and most will be around 13ga 0.72 in thickness.. Have you made any modification to yours
Hi Jimbo, Wow, sounds like you have a mega project. Just make it heavy or bolt it to the floor because the force with two or three guy working the thing will be huge. Good luck! No, I have not made any modifications, but I have had to re-weld a joint or tow that popped under pressure.
Thank you. Yes, it is overbuilt! I got the scrap steel from a large house project that had some left over cutoffs. The entire brake cost me about $200.
+Jorge Chappuzeau Sí, Jorge, creo que es posible. Pero yo creo que sólo doblar el metal más delgado. Las fuerzas en el centro de la máquina son enormes y con acciones más grueso que probablemente conseguir un poco de deflexión. La curva en el medio no sería tan fuerte si se dobla el metal más grueso. No sé en qué momento de metal es demasiado grueso para doblar bien ... Usted también puede hacer la bisagra más fuerte y el uso de un tornillo más largo y añadiendo otra tuerca o dos. Hacer buenas soldaduras - las fuerzas son enormes! Yes, Jorge, I think it is possible. But I would think that it would only bend thinner metal. The forces at the center of the machine are massive and with thicker stock you would probably get some deflection. The bend in the middle would not be as sharp if you bend thicker metal. I don't know at what point metal is too thick to bend well... You might also want to make the hinge stronger by using a longer screw and adding another nut or two. Make good welds - the forces are massive!
HELLOO FRED!! THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE... JAJA THE STEEL I THINK WORK IS 0.4MM LESS THAN 1 MILIMETER YOU THINK THIS CAN DO?? YOU MAKE CONTAINERS HOUSE? I WORK IN THIS!!!!!
Thank you very much. A bending brake like mine to bend plate steel -- no. But in UA-cam search for "DIY press brake" to see a good way to bend plate steel. You can make one with a hydraulic jack.
I haven't tried, but I don't think so, not without cheating. In my experience with my brake, I think that it could bend 16 ga. x 4" long, maybe a little longer. I say this because I made a staircase out of 1/8" steel diamond plate. The pieces that I had to bend were 4' wide. Even with two people muscling to the max, we couldn't get it to budge. So with an angle grinder with a 1/4"-thick grinding disk, we made a groove on the back side of the steel, grinding about half-way through the metal. (This made the equivalent of about 1/16" or about 16 ga. if I am not mistaken.) Then with a lot of muscle power, the two of us could make the 90-degree bends. Maybe we could have gone to 5'-wide as we still had a little muscle power left, but I think that 8' would have been pushing up against the impossible. But I wonder if 3 guys could get it to bend?
Yes, for sure. To bend a 4-long piece of 1/8" steel, I had to use an angle grinder to make a groove half-way through the steel on the backside of the bend. But two of us got the job done and now I have a beautiful diamond plate steel staircase.
I used a smaller similar design to bend all the pieces for my E link on Pele'
OBB (Odd Ball Bender / 100T press Brake) has 8,000 lbs of metal in it, I can't wait to get my tooling installed and test it out..
Nice one Fred, i'm working on one of similar size at the moment. Nice to see the trusses worked out. I can't afford to throw vast amounts of steel at my brake like most other DIYers do, so it nice to see that something like yours works... Saludos.
Hi Mike. Thanks! It takes up a lot of real estate in my shop, but I am always surprised how much I use it. We have a lot of 1/16" diamond plate aluminum in the house and the brake does a fine job of bending an 8-footer. Good luck with yours! Saludos igual.
I have been searching for this d i y 8 foot bender,Thank you for sharing your design.
You are welcome!
Panama Fred....... you are a genius...i love the rebar trussing...so cool
Thank you Jay. Genius - I don't know about that but I did spend hours and hours analysing the issues and forces. It is still bending fine, I made some aluminum shelves yesterday.
best home made bender I have seen yet !
Thank you Gary. I had little choice of metal -- a friend had some big stuff left over from a house building project and I bought what he had. I can't tell you how many months I agonized about how to make a hinge that would sustain all the torque that I knew I would throw at it. Thanks again. Fred
Nice build. Great truss idea- to keep the bending surfaces straight and true, and to also provide for leverage.
Thanks very much! The truss seems to be doing the job, worth the work.
Nice work...looks like you put some nice pride into making it...thumbs up!
Thanks very much. I enjoyed making it!
Looks good. Like the sturdy "I-beam" base.
Hope to build one myself soon
That is a monster. I sure wish I had enough room in my garage for one of those. It would come in handy sometimes. I'm hoping to weld up a much smaller brake with my powerimig.
Yeah, she's a big one for sure. I may need to move in the future and then I'll have to make a tough decision!
Excellent, it makes a sharp, crisp angle.
I worked in a union sheet metal shop - #126- s. calif.
26 gauge was what we'd make our standard ducting out of.
May I suggest squirting in a shot of oil on the hinges?
And cutting the corners on the floor beams back to 45*
would make things safer.
thumbs up / gonna see what else you've made
Hey thanks Gary. I appreciate your comment. Thanks for the reminder to oil the hinges.
Pecan pies best! Looks like a professional machine. Thanks
Thanks very much! Five years later and I have only popped one or two welds. Still bending. Pi are good!
Very nice technology by hand
Nice job! Im super jealous😊
Thanks!
That is one long brake man. I've got my sights on making a brake for myself. Gonna weld it up with my everlast welder and paint it black.
Yes. Too long in fact as it takes up too much shop real estate. It is too long most of the time, until I need that length to bend some 8-foot sheets! Wishing you success with you project!
I am worrying about building a 4 foot one. And I will be using 1/4 wall C section that I own.
Good luck. I built it then adjusted as needed when it broke. Real time engineering is my specialty. 😁 Have fun!
Cool, would be a nice edition to the garage.
+SupaLexy (SupaNautica & MotoLexy) It was a good addition to my garage, for sure. But now I have to move the beast to a new house. Glad I have strong friends!
That's amazing! Very good machine. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! You are welcome!
I realize I'm kind of randomly asking but do anyone know of a good place to stream newly released series online?
@Dallas Parker flixportal :P
@Ahmad Brendan Thanks, I signed up and it seems like they got a lot of movies there =) I appreciate it!
@Dallas Parker glad I could help :)
Nice handy tool. Good job.
If you were stranded on a desert island and made that, I'd be impressed. I just bought a Chicago brand model 8/16 break at an auction for $200.
I think I will take that as a compliment 😁. Actually I am kinda on a desert island -- I live in Panama where our options are quite limited. Kudos on your awesome purchase!
@@panamafred1 How do you like living in Panama and why did you choose it over Portugal or Croatia? More importantly, why did you choose to become an ex-pat?
@@sandercurtis1847 My wife and I have been retired here a bit more than 13 years now. We like it; the weather is good where we live in the rural mountains -- no need for heating or AC. The air is clean and fresh most of the time unless someone is burning, which happens a lot less now with education. And nature is right in our back yard -- sloths, boas, birds, you name it. We can get most of what we want within a 40-minute drive. I feel much more self-reliant here and free from the Nanny State. When we built our house, there was only one inspection -- at the end -- by the fire department who checked the main panel for correct wiring. We wish the food was better -- when was the last time you saw a Panamanian restaurant in the States? We chose Panama because it is close to the States. It is relatively safe here compared to some other Latin American countries, and we have never had a problem beyond the very-seldom Sneaky Pedro visiting us in the night to attempt petty theft. Panama uses the U.S. Dollar. When we came here, Panama had a program to attract expats and the process was quick and easy. Prices aren't the cheapest in the world, but are entitled to numerous discounts -- I used it at the dentist the other day to receive a 15% discount off a $300 root canal. And being retired, there is a special line in government offices and banks for us old people who get priority. I would love to live in Portugal, a beautiful country for sure. Croatia wasn't on the map for us at the time but understand it is lovely and affordable. Why did we chose to be expats? When my wife and I met 15 years ago, she expressed a life-long desire to live outside of the U.S.A. -- she decided that when she was 10 after writing a report on the Galapagos penguins. After writing the report, she told her parents that she wanted them to send her to the University of Mexico right then! Just a bit precocious. When we moved here, other expats moved out of the States at the same/similar time because of Bush or Obama. We moved for a new cultural experience. When I was in the service many, many years ago, I was told that I had zero aptitude for languages and that I would never speak a second one. I'm not fluent, but I can speak Spanish sufficiently to be easily understood in a conversation. I pick up and take home our gardener four days a week (I don't want him on the buses during Covid) and we have very involved discussions about a wide range of topics during the drive. It feels good to have this accomplishment. I say I speak Tarzan Spanish. We both feel that we have grown exponentially and don't see moving back to the States. So much more, but this is the short answer. I have lots of stories on my blog at panamashippingcontainerhouse.com -- just dig through the Table Of Contents. Thanks for your comment. Fred
@@panamafred1 You are an impressive and adventurous man. All the best to you.
@@sandercurtis1847 Thank you. I try to live outside of my comfort zone!
Crazy awesome
Aww thanks!
Wow !
That is fantastic!
Like a lot of other comments: the best DIY and even commercial 8 foot brake I have ever seen.
Professional all the way down to the bold yellow paint job . That is so inspiring.
Do you think one could bend a 2xX wall stud with such a machine ?
Sorry, your comment slipped past me. Thanks very much for the compliment!
Nice going mate !
Thanks very much!
You did a nice job on your metal break. Can you post your build material list. Thank You!
Thanks very much Mark. Sorry, but I just picked through the pile of scrap and picked out the pieces that I thought would work. No plan, no list. Didn't measure. Just cut, fit, welded. It is a miracle that it turned out at all. :)
the only thing to improve his design is to put a strong threaded rod with 2 nuts either side of the high point in the truss to be able to tension the week point in the truss because over time and on thicker material the angle will distort an bend
Great idea. Thanks!
well done!
Thank you!
thank you. very nice
You are welcome. Thank you!
This is the biggest and most capable DiY sheet metal brake I have found so far. I attribute the crisp bends to the stiffening trusses and the pretensioning of the hold down bar. It seems curved and its ends have still a gap when the middle already touches so they need to be clamped down. Did you intensionally build this bend into it or was it a welcome result of welding distortion?
Thanks very much for your kind comment. I have to say that no, I didn't plan for the pretensioning. I am in no way a professional welder or even a technically proficient back yard welder. I just thought it through to the best of my ability. It was a total happy accident. But it sure clamps a piece down good and tight! Even after the years since I built it, it still bends crisply. Thanks again.
When I will build mine I will use yours as a guiding star. I hope I will get the same happy accidents. :-)
normal rebar is pretty tough to weld. Do you have any tips?
I'm glad that no one told me that rebar was tough to weld before I tackled the project! I'm an amateur welder at best. I guess I just stayed in the weld for a long time and got the metals very hot. I used 6011 rod. I have to admit that two welds did pop loose when I was bending 1/8" diamond plate steel for my staircase. To get the 1/8" to bend, we had to grind a groove on the backside of the steel, thereby making it closer to 1/16". Still, it took two guys working hard to make the four-foot bends in the steel steps. So much force that a couple welds popped free and made quite a loud noise when it gave way; I think that it broke the sound barrier!
Your truss assembly doesn't have any tension adjustment on it.
I have a question if you don't mind. What thickness angle did you use? I have a 6'er that I'm working on. I used 2X2X1/4" with a 4" chanel for the bed. The 2x2x1/4 is bowing up when I start to bend a 3' piece of 29 guage. I have the hold down angle turned the same as yours. On a lot of the brakes I have looked at on you tube, they have the angle laying flat on one side of the angle. Which do you think is better?
Ray
Can we bend 14 and 16 gauge MS sheet with this?
Man I've been wanting to build a brake kinda like this for about 3yrs but wasn't sure if it would bend metal thick enough for what I was wanting to do but after seeing this I know it will work..thanks man that's so cool I'm jealous .. Just one question what did you use for your hinge? someone else asked if it would take on 16ga I'm sure it would if not it would with a bit of tweaking and with 2 men working it ..I wonder about how much longer you could make it if any it sure bent that very easy looking
You are welcome. I didn't know what it would bend, either! For the hinge, at each end of the brake I used a 3/4" bolt and three nuts. I welded the bolt head and one of the nuts (the middle one) to the stand and the other two nuts to the part that swings up to bend the metal. Pay close attention to alignment -- center the bolt between the stand and the swing part. You have to grind away parts of the stand and the swing so that there is space for the bolt to center. Weld really well or they will snap off under pressure. Voice of experience.
I'm finely fixing to start building mine it's going to look mostly like your. I'm going to shoot for 16.5 feet lol I know it may not work but I'm going to try if it doesn't work right and I can't work the bugs out of it I figured I could alway cut it down to 10ft. your dose so good at 8ft I'm sure 2 guys can work one like this 10ft I hope.. I think most of the metal I'm going to be bending is going to be aluminum and most will be around 13ga 0.72 in thickness.. Have you made any modification to yours
Hi Jimbo,
Wow, sounds like you have a mega project. Just make it heavy or bolt it to the floor because the force with two or three guy working the thing will be huge. Good luck! No, I have not made any modifications, but I have had to re-weld a joint or tow that popped under pressure.
Muy lindo trabajo.
Mil gracias Sr.!
Very cool, but isent there a skyscraper missing some I beams somewhere? :)
Thank you. Yes, it is overbuilt! I got the scrap steel from a large house project that had some left over cutoffs. The entire brake cost me about $200.
@@panamafred1 That's far less than I expected. Nice going.
@@sandercurtis1847 Thank you!
Fred. thanks for your message. please you think its posible make in 3 meters long?? you think i will be change some dimenision?? thanks. jorge
+Jorge Chappuzeau Sí, Jorge, creo que es posible. Pero yo creo que sólo doblar el metal más delgado. Las fuerzas en el centro de la máquina son enormes y con acciones más grueso que probablemente conseguir un poco de deflexión. La curva en el medio no sería tan fuerte si se dobla el metal más grueso. No sé en qué momento de metal es demasiado grueso para doblar bien ... Usted también puede hacer la bisagra más fuerte y el uso de un tornillo más largo y añadiendo otra tuerca o dos. Hacer buenas soldaduras - las fuerzas son enormes!
Yes, Jorge, I think it is possible. But I would think that it would only bend thinner metal. The forces at the center of the machine are massive and with thicker stock you would probably get some deflection. The bend in the middle would not be as sharp if you bend thicker metal. I don't know at what point metal is too thick to bend well... You might also want to make the hinge stronger by using a longer screw and adding another nut or two. Make good welds - the forces are massive!
HELLOO FRED!! THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE... JAJA
THE STEEL I THINK WORK IS 0.4MM LESS THAN 1 MILIMETER YOU THINK THIS CAN DO??
YOU MAKE CONTAINERS HOUSE? I WORK IN THIS!!!!!
Oh, .4mm -- I thought you meant 4mm! Yes. Easy!
Oh, .4mm - Pensé que te referías 4mm! Sí. ¡Fácil!
you think keep the specifications of size metal chasis machine?
R
great work! do you think that may be i can do some one similar to bend plates of 2" wide and 1/4" thick?
Thank you very much. A bending brake like mine to bend plate steel -- no. But in UA-cam search for "DIY press brake" to see a good way to bend plate steel. You can make one with a hydraulic jack.
ok gracias!
Hello I am from algeria
Could you help me to build this bend sheet metal
can we band 18gauge sheet
How sheet thickness you can make
Eight feet of 1/16" aluminum. Four feet of 1/16 steel. That is all I have bent so far.
Pi are square. No pie are round :-)
+Luvstruck Three years later my brake is still going strong. And pie still are round! Glad you enjoyed it. Fred
Can you brake a g16 8 feet sheet metal?
I haven't tried, but I don't think so, not without cheating. In my experience with my brake, I think that it could bend 16 ga. x 4" long, maybe a little longer. I say this because I made a staircase out of 1/8" steel diamond plate. The pieces that I had to bend were 4' wide. Even with two people muscling to the max, we couldn't get it to budge. So with an angle grinder with a 1/4"-thick grinding disk, we made a groove on the back side of the steel, grinding about half-way through the metal. (This made the equivalent of about 1/16" or about 16 ga. if I am not mistaken.) Then with a lot of muscle power, the two of us could make the 90-degree bends. Maybe we could have gone to 5'-wide as we still had a little muscle power left, but I think that 8' would have been pushing up against the impossible. But I wonder if 3 guys could get it to bend?
blueprints for your press?
No, sorry, no plans. I made it up as I went along...
the firts bends like machine
+Antonio Hernández Gracias Antonio
sir um what can u bend on that
8-foot-long thin gauge sheet metal, 8-foot-long 1/16" aluminum, 4-foot-long 1/16" steel, BUT NOT GLASS OF ANY THICKNESS!
@@panamafred1 corvette joke..lol
Do you have any plans.????
Sorry, no, no plans. But you can see a lot of the details on my blog at www.PanamaShippingContainerHouse.com.
it would be hard to bend thick gauge.
Yes, for sure. To bend a 4-long piece of 1/8" steel, I had to use an angle grinder to make a groove half-way through the steel on the backside of the bend. But two of us got the job done and now I have a beautiful diamond plate steel staircase.
Esta Bueno
Mil gracias!
надежно!
I can't translate it, but I will take it as a compliment!
Panama Fred securely, safely, firmly
юра круглый Ahh, Thank you.
А я это без переворда понял))))
que eso no es practico subir con llave