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  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Default How To Design A Sheet Metal Bender?

    I want to build a simple bender. I'm thinking 4ft wide bed to handle standard size sheet which here in Aus. is 1.2m

    On hand is some 1/4 angle iron. I'd like to use it.

    Now where is the most stress, I wonder? How should I design so's that is met and I don't oversize in other places?

    Is there any way I'll be able to figure if the 1/4" angle will take the load in this or that place?

    I saw a design where the guy got his bending bar warping and bending - an angle iron bar - even though he stiffened it with gussets.

    Seen design where the top clamping bar is angle iron of the same size as the bending bar. Need they/should they be the same, they handle the same loads?

    Seen the top clamping angle iron bar used in an upside down 'V' meaning an edge had to be ground on it - and seen it used as an 'L' shape where the bottom of the 'L' clamped down on the work -facing sometimes forward sometimes backward and seen that 'L' turned over so's the edge clamps down on the work.

    Which is strongest and best there of those choices?

    I wouldn't be trying to bend anything more than 2mm and generally less.

    Anyone got any ideas on what design parameters I should look at in this regard or can point me to where I should go ask or look?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2011
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    Murray Bridge S Aust.
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    Default

    For bending 2mm and less, don't waste your time thinking about using 1/4" angle. You don't mention what size it is, 40X40 etc.?
    Are you wanting to do box sections, folds over 90 degrees, etc.?
    Kryn
    To grow old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    sa
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    Default

    Sorry. It's 2.5" - 60mm.

    What I want to do changes the design parameters regarding forces acting on the thing?

    In the first instance I want to make up some strips with a profile like a chair seen side on with the back leg missing. i.e. I want 50mm down, then a bend giving 25mm at right angles and then a bend giving a further 100mm going down.

    Like not a U shape when finished. Just an offset really.

    Should have made a drawing, eh?

    But that doesn't matter that I can see. Does it?

    And future times I'd like the thing to be useful for as much as possible. Can't say what right now.

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    Riddells Creek, Vic.
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    Default

    Bending 2mm sheet over 1200mm takes a real lot of force, the John Heine folders at work are heavy cast iron and weigh probably 400kg but are only rated to 1.6mm at full width. I have repaired one that was overloaded, by apprentices trying to bend 2.0 or 2.5 steel sheet, to a point where it broke at the pivot point resulting in the heavy bending bar falling to the ground just missing the operators feet.

    Your home made design may be OK for short bends but you can forget about bending at full width.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
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    Aldinga Beach.
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    Default

    You'll need some serious size angle to bend 4' wide sheet metal. I have a 600mm wide bender made of 10 mm angle, bends like crazy on 1.2mm sheet.

    Cut down the width of the bender and triple the size of the angle and you might make it work.

    Better still, don't use angle, use flat bar, particularly for the bending blade.

  6. #6
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    sa
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    Default

    Okay. Good I'm asking, eh?

    So what size sheet do you think I could bend with a 4' wide bender made of 1/4" angle?

    What size would you advise coming down to with 1/4" ? 3' ? 2'6" ?

    Or what size angle do you suggest I use?

    Why flat bar instead of angle? You mean much thicker flat bar, is that it? Surely same thickness is stronger with angle? that's why we use angle.

    And like back to what I started with: where is the force and the most strength needed? Broke the pivot? So there's one place....

    Like generally the bending bar and the clamping bar and the bed at that point are all the same size, seems to me, in the builds I've seen. Would that be a given? Always plan for them to be the same?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
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    Mackay North Qld
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    Hi abrogard,

    Going back some 11 years when this Forum lived in the Woodworkers forum, a member called Simso posted a thread about a pan break bender.

    Making a Pan Brake "Folder with fingers" for home

    OK! It is not the bender you are looking for, but the information posted the, serves to support those comments made here, today.

    The brake pan was only 600mm wide and but a few members built one so that reading may be helpful to your endeavor.

    There were diagrams, plans, and photos but I don't what happened to them. They were probably lost in successive upgrades and changes to the Forum over the years.

    Long-term members may remember and may have something to offer.

    Grahame

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Wentworth Falls NSW 2782
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    Default Simso Panbreak folder

    I do remember, and I do have something to offer.

    I collected the relevant posts, pictures and drawings and rolled them up into a pdf file.
    I also have a number of dfx files in a separate folder.
    I don't think that I am breaking any rules by posting here. (If I am, let me know please)

    Hope this helps,

    Findlay.
    Attached Files Attached Files

  9. #9
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  10. #10
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    I wouldn't bother with the 1/4" angle, not for a bender anyway. Save it for something else, it's wasted here. Have a look at a 4' wide sheet metal bender someday, you'll be surprised at how heavy they are and how thick and wide the bending plate is.

    Sheet metal benders are very limiting anyway, better off with a box and pan brake with multiple fingers. Have a look on ebay, you can get a 600mm wide B&P brake for around $300, sort of makes building one a bit of a time waster for that money.

    4' wide sheet metal benders pop up on Gumtree every now and again, last one I saw was around $600 from memory. If you were to build one, the cost for materials heavy enough to do the job wouldn't be much short of that figure. But again, you'd be pretty limited in what you can use it for...

    They are usually made of cast iron with replaceable blades, very heavy and very substantial.

    An alternative for smaller pieces is what I use: two pieces of 600x20x80mm bar, two G clamps and a panel beaters hammer.

  11. #11
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by Michael G View Post
    Thanks Michael for dobbing me in...... Again!

    I will finish this project. It's still sitting in the same place as in the pic in my last post. It annoys me to no end knowing it's not finished especially since there have been so many times I could have used it since.

    I really underestimated the work involved in that project when I started. Having said that, my skills have also improved since I started so I'm keen to get back into it. Got the log splitter to finish up and the mill to finish putting together.

    Maybe toward end of the (this) year?

    Edit: I still blame Michael for encouraging me to build one similar to his and I also blame Joe Hovel for talking me into upsizing it from 900mm to 1200mm!

    Simon
    Girl, I don't wanna know about your mild-mannered alter ego or anything like that." I mean, you tell me you're, uh, super-mega-ultra-lightning babe? That's all right with me. I'm good. I'm good.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by simonl View Post
    Thanks Michael for dobbing me in...... Again!
    Edit: I still blame Michael for encouraging me to build one similar to his and I also blame Joe Hovel for talking me into upsizing it from 900mm to 1200mm!
    No problem mate.I am sure the lads were very happy to do so.

    Grahame

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by simonl View Post
    ...I still blame Michael for encouraging me to build one similar to his and I also blame Joe Hovel for talking me into upsizing it from 900mm to 1200mm...
    I'm sure there is a forum rule somewhere that says you are only allowed to blame other members when explaining things to your significant other that you were hoping would not be noticed.

    Anyway, I posted that to firstly show the OP what thickness parts were used in a 4ft bender and secondly, the amount of work in making one...

    Michael

  14. #14
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    No worries Michael.

    Yes its a bit if work but im sure i also make thing more complicated than they need ti be sometimes.

    Simon

    Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
    Girl, I don't wanna know about your mild-mannered alter ego or anything like that." I mean, you tell me you're, uh, super-mega-ultra-lightning babe? That's all right with me. I'm good. I'm good.

  15. #15
    jatt's Avatar
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    Hmm, yeah the 4 ft foot bender creates considerable force, as has been well documented.

    Easy enough to make up something to do something smaller (say 300 -400) mm with just a bearing press, some meaty angle for bottom tooling.
    Top tool, just have some 12 mm plate machined into a V.

    Yeah I know its not the answer you were looking for, but to make up a few basic bends here and there....

    To do my lighter guage stuff up to 4 ft.... well I just made friends with a backyard fabricator!! The whole favour exchange thing is working well!
    Frisky wife, happy life. ​Then I woke up. Oh well it was fun while it lasted.
    From an early age my father taught me to wear welding gloves . "Its not to protect your hands son, its to put out the fire when u set yourself alight".

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