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24" Press Brake + Contraption.. rebuild?

4K views 31 replies 7 participants last post by  BruceTS 
#1 ·
So, I got a 24" Press Brake + Contraption and am wondering if I should gusset the contraption and continue using it or if I should rebuild it completely.

You can see the steel starting to stretch in the pictures attached. I was thinking I could just gusset the sides to distribute the load, or I could rebuild with stronger stuff.

Entire contraption:


It does not fit on the HF shop press, I've used it in there angled... but of course don't want to continue as it limits the usage as well as is kinda sketchy.

It works good and I can already think of a ton of usages for it.

So... rebuild or gusset and call it good:D
 

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#5 ·
If you clicked the link you would have seen I got the 24" press brake and he threw that contraption in ;) Of course I wouldn't pay for that!!!

87JeepWrangler- I think that's probably what I'll do, and when I finish my welding legs, bandsaw legs, and a few other legs I have to make If I have leftover 3"x3"x5/16" i`ll make a new one :)

Thnx guys.
 
#4 · (Edited)
being on a limited budget, if it was mine, i would probably just add gussets. with proper support, that would probably continue to work perfectly for a long time. i would probably grind out the welds in question and re-weld those as well.


edit: i've been staring at the pictures some more, and noticed you said it can bend up to 120*. if you don't mind me asking, what is the angle on both the top and bottom pieces (don't know their technical name) where the actual bending takes place?
 
#13 ·
I think i`m going to cut the bottom 2 pieces of 4"x4" off and re-use the rest of it. The bottom weld region steel is almost ripping its pulled so much.

I`ll use my 5/16" walled tube, and put some 1/4" or 1/2" in that region, and then gusset the top portion, and the new bottom portion.

It should be plenty beefy with that stuff, and then I`ll stick it on my welding table and call it good.
 
#21 ·
I have also thought about doing 2 20 ton air over hydro to get 40 tons and a ram on each end to broaden the force, but I really have doubts as to how well it will be able to press evenly. If your piece is not perfectly centerd, the side with less metal on it will push faster than the side with more metal on it... I might be over thinking it but who knows... I think when I make mine I will use 1" or 1.5" solid rod as the guides to keep the top part of the brake straight. throw some springs on there like what you have shown, and probably just use a 50 ton bottle jack. The 2 20 ton air over hydro's is an interesting idea though. 2 foot bends out of 1/4" would be a skid plate, nothing more
 
#22 ·
Scott @ RocKStomper used(uses?) 2 rams, I saw in his post. I wonder if he can contribute to this potential problem.

Skid Plate, either engine, tranny, transfer, or axle, or a winch plate, those are all I can come up with so far for why you need to bend 1/4" by 2ft... In reality (atleast for me) I`ll be using 3/16" more to save weight, and bracing more/properly to add more strength.

I need to lighten my pig up... right now I`m around 615lbs a corner up front *sprung*.
 
#23 ·
So, I added some steel to the contraption and stuck it on my old bandsaw cart so I can move it around, and added the 20 TON air/hydro ram from HF to it. Pics coming soon :flipoff2:

I`ll get some video and pictures of it bending too, time to put it to the stress test and see what it can do before it goes kaboom :D
 
#24 ·
I can bend 3/8 plate in my 20 ton press with no issues. However the plate's are only 8" wide max. I've even done 1/2" a few times and it worked well. The point is, you might consider making a setup that you use for doing smaller widths. Because you will end up jacking your die's doing small pices in a wide die.
My die's are 12"L x 1"thick for the upper and 1/2" flatbar welded in a "V" for the lower
 
#27 ·
I just missed out on getting the 20 ton jacks from HF(sale ended today), so now I'm thinking about that 50 ton one. I'll wait a week or so before deciding, besides that's how long it'll take before it shows up. I need to bend 11 gage plates 24" long and also will have to modify the dies since part of the plate will extend into the die area that needs to remain straight. the plan is to cut the bottom die to 24" length since I know I'll never need to bend anything longer, besides I have a 36" 3 in 1 shear/brake already for the lighter stuff.
 
#30 ·
instead of starting a new thread, I'll add to this one, since it inspired me to do the build-up.

I started with northern tools 40 ton 29" press brake. In actuality the die size is 26", they just rate the size by overall width.

I was able to get 2 - 20 ton air/hydro jacks at HF on sale and then it was off to buy the steel to build the frame work. So this was my weekend project....


After inital assembly, I did a few test runs bending a 24" piece of 11 guage and then a 20" piece of 1/4". They bent like butter with hardly any load on the rams. I had planned on adding a few more braces, but decided it wasn't needed. This beast is heavy, total weight just under 300 lbs.

The gap to the left of the dies was intentional, since one of the pieces I bend has a section that would hit the framework and needs to remain straight. I simply cut the base plate and added a 6" section, same with the upper die...

Total cost came just under $700
 
#32 ·
It's just an illusion...... camera angle makes it looked bowed....

For now the jacks will stay on separate valves, this way I can pull them for other uses. I've read that there is a way to connect them so they apply equal pressure, but it seem to be more of a PITA to bother with. I could just put a level between the jacks to insure equal pressure.....
 
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