Look @ what I built today!Homemade break pics...

Yo H.A.M.B.er's.Check out how I spent my day(actually two days).It works well for what Im doing.Any way....less talk more pics.

EVIL

 

Neat, I really dig homemade tools

 

That my friend is two days WELL spent!

Nick.

 

nice job. guess the boss was on vacation this week

 

I'll take some rockers for a 50 Chevy 2 door sedan, while you're at it!

 

what gage can you do with it?

 

When can we start making orders?? That shits cool.

 

I'm all ways on vacation Pat!I have spent the past few weeks working on tooling while the worker bees keep the place making money.....ahhhh.....its good to be king!HAHAHA.

 

coming right up!

 

I bent some 18ga today.That's about the max I would ever bend,its also the heaviest I have in stock.

 

That's funny....my employees kept telling me I should start selling them too.Its a lot of work to build one,but worth it in the end.

 

Nice work, time well spent.

 

I always felt like your doing something when you make the tools that make the parts, nice work.

 

With your pivot point being in front of the verticle you will never get a crisp 90 degree bend. I see your example bend has more of a radius instead to a tight 90.
Look at a pro brake and see what I mean. If the results are satisfactory to you, rock on.

Frank

 

Yo Frank

That is a good point and I am fully aware of that fact.I built it that way on purpose.I do a lot or restoration work and I have found I all most never have the need for a real sharp 90 degree bend.I kinda like the "softer" edge,I dont know why,its just more pleasing to me.

I have got my eye on a 4 foot box and pan break.I think between the two,they should cover about any thing I could ever want to bend.I just finished the welding on the new break today,so I haven't had much time to play with it yet,but I have been thinking of ways to get the radius sharper if I need it.Any suggestions?

 

Nice, very nice!

 

That is a fine point.I don't know what one would do to find it,but I do know this.There is a fine reason why I didn't get many results when I did a search for "breaks" on here!Sorry about that.I never claimed to be smart!

 

That's awesome, i might make one too!!

 

I just started planning to build my own brake earlier today. Weird i would see this tonight. I think i will be stealing a few of your design features. And i agree most of the bends a I make have a somewhat lazy radius. looks good to me.

 

Lets put this thing to work.
Friday night your place, I'll bring the beer.

 

That's great! I can see a trip for me to ALRO steel store in the near future!

 

No No James....its bigger!This one is more like the one he and I discussed 4 or 5 years ago.

 

How about making the top part able to slide anything up to 1/2 inch forwards ? From what I can see in the pictures you'd need to make the mounting holes 'oval' and 1/2" long, and allow for a tightening system on either side (like a big wheel / handle instead of the bolts you have there currently ?

Set-up might be a bit time consuming but then you can bend however sharp you want. A metal rule either side would help make set-up easier.

 

Could you not slide a thicker peice of Lets say Stainles /More less bendable Over the pivot to make for a much shaper brake?

 

I like homemade tools....I want to build a brake , so I might copy yours.

 

go for it man!

 

Man that is alot nicer than the one I built this spring. Well mine isnt done completely either... My hinges are kinda hokey. I had yet to move the milling machines down here from Maine. But this rig bends up 11ga alum like a champ. Really gotta get around to adding my bracing though and paint... I feel the trick with the hinges is to put the pivot point right center of the inner top corner of the follower or bending bar (know what I mean?). I was afraid of having too little throat and scoring/sheering the material. So I made them adjustable. In hind sight it hasnt bothered... You guys with more time could blow these hinges out of the water easily. And really I could too now that I have my tools relocated. But when I made this all I had was a grinder and tig welder... All of my other tools still resided in Maine.
Grrr Gotta reboot the comp to recognize the memory card. Pics soon to follow.

 

Some day when I am bored I will be fabricate the hinges but they work ace for now. But man they look like a$$ Who knows most likely I will just wait for them to fail...