DIY press brake

[Paul Allwood]

What is the pressure of your tractor hydraulics pump?
With 200bar two 80mm cylinders would give you 200kN.

I wrote it before, for bending round shapes I think slower is better.

But then, maybe you are working on a sheet metal rolling machine already

And you do not want to produce 200 buckets per hour (I think). With the number of potential bends you will make you will spend less time the way it is compared to the time spent modyfying your existing setup.

Anyway, keep up the amazing work and keep us updated !

p.s.: with this brake press work you got me thinking about a front end loader again

Thanks Hugo. When checking pressures after getting the hydraulics connected for the loader, found that the tractor relief is set to about 1850 psi. That needs two 5.5" cylinders to give me 40 tonne - I have two 20 tonne jacks on the press.

I think I'll leave it as it is - the speed doesn't really matter to me.

 

[Paul Allwood]

My little "SWAG” press brake uses 2 springs (one on each side) to “return up"


Looks like a lot of cutting with an angle grinder.

I like the idea of the fingers, but they look a little “long/tall” to me.

Is there a reason for their height?

Perhaps a clearance reason?

Here's an example of the use of one of the long narrow top tools. The sheet I bought for the bucket just happens to be 1220 mm wide (4 foot) rather than 1200 mm and my rolling is 600 mm wide per set. So I've spread the two 600 mm top tools and inserted a 20 mm piece.

Ideally I'd do the same for the bottom tool but I don't have extra bits for this and for a loader bucket that's going to scrape around in dirt and rocks it won't really matter.

Probably doesn't matter much for the top tool in this case either, but I made it so I thought I may as well use it.

 

[Paul Allwood]

Pretty happy with how the press works so far. It bent the 3 mm over 1200 mm for the loader bucket like it wasn't there. Easy enough to adjust the fold angle to get each end even with a quick tap on the air valve for the side that needs it.

I'll also try reducing the width of the bottom vee by laying 3 x 1200 mm long 1" diameter bars in the vee. This will increase the bending force but also give a tighter radius bend. Don't think I'll always want the big radius that you get with a wide vee that is quite ok for the bucket.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Thats pretty impressive work sir!

How did/do you move it around? Chain-fall or forks?

 

[Paul Allwood]

Thats pretty impressive work sir!

How did/do you move it around? Chain-fall or forks?

Thanks. The press is on 4 heavy duty swivel castors. It's heavy to move but not too difficult. Once I rearrange things a bit (again) I probably won't need to move it often.

 

[Paul Allwood]

I bent some of the 3 mm steel sheet that was left over from the loader bucket today to enclose 3 sides of the ballast box. I laid three 1" diameter bars in the bottom vee to effectively narrow the vee aiming for a tighter radius bend. It worked out pretty well - nice easy easy to make a narrower vee.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

I laid three 1" diameter bars in the bottom vee to effectively narrow the vee aiming for a tighter radius bend.

Good idea.

I would have thought that those 1” bars would have “moved” when the force was applied.

I will have to try this trick on my “mini” brake.

Thanks for sharing that

 

[Paul Allwood]

Good idea.

I would have thought that those 1” bars would have “moved” when the force was applied.

I will have to try this trick on my “mini” brake.

Thanks for sharing that

I too wasn't sure if it would work or if the bars would move, but they stayed in place enough to get a 90 degree bend.

 

[Paul Allwood]

There's probably a few here who remember when calculators were first introduced. If you didn't know what you were doing they helped get the wrong answer a lot faster.

Well this new press is a bit like that.

The 2 folded pieces in the pic attached were folded from the same size sheet - the first one I folded the wrong way. The second one is right. The press helped me mess it up much faster than I normally would have.

Measure 398 times.....

This is the beginnings of a toolbox to mount on the 2 bars sticking out the back of my ROPS.

 

[dlsmith]

You know the old adage, you only learn from your mistakes.

Jeez, I should be a genius by now.

 

[Paul Allwood]

You know the old adage, you only learn from your mistakes.

Jeez, I should be a genius by now.

You're not alone there