home built press brake

[DarkEternal]

Looking to build a home built press brake. I read the article in the 1st issue of extreme offroad, and have been wanting to get one anyways. Im looking for whos done it and who knows about it. Im wanting to make close bends, and be able to bend pretty decent sized chunks of .25" plate or thicker. Looking at using the 30 ton hydro jack harbor freight sells. How would you all do it? Im looking specifically how you would do the dies.

[big97redtj]

I have a pretty good grasp from the article. :D

Your best bet on the dies is to find surplus pieces that are sold as scrap. We machined the first set of dies on the mill, but recently came across a few hundred pounds of dies that were "pretty reasonable". I see them on ebay from time to time as well.

[CJeep77]

I have looked into it in the past, and it was going to require more $ that I thought to make one. You need to be around 60 to 80 ton to brake a 1/4 plate 6' long from what I remember. I was going to use 2 5" cylinders with long strokes set up with leverage principals to do mine, but then you need a higher volume of fluid to have a reasonable die speed, and that requires a larger motor, which means $$$. The dies just clamp on to their mount, and their are 2 different mounts that I am aware of out there.

[DarkEternal]

wow i dont need to break a 6' long anything, im talking like 18-24" MAX, most will be alot less.

[CJeep77]

Sorry, I just assumed the size in that range. :beer: You can get dies from MSC and other such places, in any shape or length you need. You can modify a shop press to do a 24" brake.

[jca]

I built one for use with my press. I used angle iron and 1" x120 wall tubing and a piece of retangle 2x4 250 wall. For the top piece I put a piece of 1" into the middle of the angle iron and welded it in then I put a piece of tubing straight up in the middle that slides onto the top piece of the press. I should have put some plate on from the tube in the middle to the end of the angle/tube to keep the ends from bending up.

For the bottom I put a piece of angle iron with the point down onto the retangle piece. I then welded 2 1" tubes down the sides.

Here is a ruff (and I do mean ruff) drawing I did in paint to kind of show what I am talking about. I am not at home so I cant take a picture. I have bent up to 1/4 with it. I have not tried anything bigger.

Top left is the bottom piece. Top right is the top piece looking at the end and bottom is top piece side view. Hope you all can get the gest.

[Oxjockey]

I was going to make a jig for the shop press. Basically some thick plate with re-inforced 1/2" angle iron above it. I was only going to make it a foot long.

Here's what I'd come up with:
http://www.dana60.com/images/bpress.jpg

I haven't gotten to building it, yet, but the steel's on order.

I didn't know you could get dies from MSC. :D

[DarkEternal]

Feel super stupid asking but whats MSC?

[big97redtj]

Feel super stupid asking but whats MSC?

Manhatten Supply Company it's like Grainger and McMaster Carr.

[Oxjockey]

Manhatten Supply Company it's like Grainger and McMaster Carr.


:confused: This one: MSC-Direct.com (http://www1.mscdirect.com/cgi/nnsrhm)

I couldn't find them, but what are you looking for?

[DarkEternal]

looked on there and didnt find and dies.....

[SLOB]

http://www.midwestpressbrake.com/index2.htm has press brake tooling. look at the internet closeouts link. but, it doesnt give a good description of the tooling...you need the catalog to look up part numbers.

http://www.novapresstools.com/shop.asp has better descriptions and a useful tonage calculator..... but its in BC, not sure how much you will get raped for shipping or taxes buying from canada.

also, when using the tonage calculator.......I was told that the v opening on your die needs to be 8 x mat'l thickness for optimum bending. smaller opening = more tonage required.....I think a larger opening uses less tonage.....but nots as good of a bend?

[Oxjockey]

http://www.midwestpressbrake.com/index2.htm has press brake tooling. look at the internet closeouts link. but, it doesnt give a good description of the tooling...you need the catalog to look up part numbers.

http://www.novapresstools.com/shop.asp has better descriptions and a useful tonage calculator..... but its in BC, not sure how much you will get raped for shipping or taxes buying from canada.

also, when using the tonage calculator.......I was told that the v opening on your die needs to be 8 x mat'l thickness for optimum bending. smaller opening = more tonage required.....I think a larger opening uses less tonage.....but nots as good of a bend?

I'll have to check those out tomorrow.

Yah, the article said 7-8 times the thickness and had a chart for openings vs tons for different thicknesses.

[zachv]

I wanted to say thanks and major kudos to Mad4WD for that article. That was very informative and definitely something I want to do in the future.
:smokin:

[CJeep77]

looked on there and didnt find and dies.....

Sorry, maybe this page on dies (http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNPDFF?PMPAGE=1191&PMK0NO=00000362864) will get you in the right spot!

[big97redtj]

I wanted to say thanks and major kudos to Mad4WD for that article. That was very informative and definitely something I want to do in the future.
:smokin:


Thanks a bunch Zach. You should see the next project. I don't think we'll be publishing this one though.

[yager]

well i posted it in the homemade tool thread so i guess ill post it here... this is a simple set up from 1.5" 3/16" angle and some other scraps. ~ 6" long. It easily bends 1/4" im sure with some simple bracing you could do 12-18 np..

the only problem i have at times, is keeping the bottom and top lined up, holding the piece in there and pumping the jack. Once it gets tension i can gettem just right. A guide pin set up (like on prof. tools ) woudl work for larger pieces...

[MOOSEKNUCKLE]

THIS IS TEH ONE TO BUILD
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/MOOSEKNUCKLE57/pb1.jpg

[ironpig70]

wow alot of great info and the company i work for throws away alot of steel(used to pack tractors in)

[Oxjockey]

the only problem i have at times, is keeping the bottom and top lined up, holding the piece in there and pumping the jack. Once it gets tension i can gettem just right. A guide pin set up (like on prof. tools ) woudl work for larger pieces...

I was going to take some thick plate, weld the bottom die assembly to that, then get some 1x1 angle iron on each corner as a guide.