BUILD a Sheet Metal Brake! FREE PLANS!

Very good...

why make an a-frame brace on top instead of a piece of flat bar?

I love the way you think, cheerful, informative, and a character by the sound of the way you explain things.I am on the other side of this big rock,in Tasmania Australia. Keep up your good teaching.

Could I get your plans please.

You should put your gloves off, when drilling!

I built your project, and I'm satisfied with the result

Ok don't have lathe. But I can mig weld

I found a sure (no) fire solution to smoking 4" side grinders...

Bought a pneumatic side grinder. Gotta have big azz tank on your air compressor.

If you don't, scrounge up some dead compressors & use their tanks for more capacity. Good investment of time, very little $ & will help w/ other air hog type tools, (die grinder, paint guns, etc)

Don't do what I did, tho, buy a good air side grinder to start. A lot of times, a cheap HF air tool will do the job; not w/ a side grinder. Not enough torque; end up w/ 4" elec grinder performance.

Get a good one & it'll perform like a 9" 120v side grinder at a fraction of the weight.

I've got a 40 yr old 9" Skil grinder that I could manhandle in my 20's, 30's & 40's; now, at 69, it manhandles me.

Would heat treating the bending fingers be a plus?

I've needed a sheet metal brake for a long time, but can't afford a fingered brake, & know I'd be frustrated w/ a continuous edge brake.

Yours is the only one I've seem that makes me want to build my own.

When I get the finish/detail belt sander done, I may well do it. I can see a need for the sander in this project to save some time.

Brilliant, I had a metalwork teacher just like you, I can still remember him now, Bob Courrier was his name. I went into engineering at 15 as a machine tool fitter apprentice in the heart of the industrial midlands of the UK and retired at 60, retired now but never had a day in my working life where I didn't want to go to work. I built a small machine shop in the garden when I finished and now I have my 13yr old grand son turning the parts for this folder, even he finds it interesting ! Thank you for the effort to post this build. Best regards Mick

get yourself a high quality set of carbide tipped hole saws

Silly question from my side, what program do you use to make your plans drawings?

How did you cut the fingers at the 45 degree angle?

Teacher, is the clearance between the cantilever lever and the clamp overcenter correct ? In the video you say you aim for four to five thou clearance between parts but the difference is fifty thou between those parts . Our build is nearly complete and it's looking very good, we've made it a little wider to fold a 1M sheet, gone up to 20mm for the shafts and 20mm x 50mm for the folder bar.once again thank you .
Best regards mick

Excuse me if this has been asked before or I missed it in the video, but what thickness of material is this capable of bending please? Thanks for the free plans and great video by the way 😁

Finished and works a treat, just have to make some diferent width fingers and paint it . thank you.

Thank you for the plans!!

As a retired tech ed teacher, thanks for sharing. Love to see your projects!

Hi I would like to build your sheet metal brake could I get the plans please thanks glen

Just found your channel and Subscribed. Nice work.

“Very accurately done wrong” lol subscribed

Акцент как у Элвиса Пресли, очень мелодичный

I so wish I could read imperial. I would love to do this project. But metric is all I know.☹

Love the commentary

Amazing! Many thanks for making your plans and your video available. It seems that your wordpress isn'tworking today anymore!
But if you need any modeling or any drawing I have my own commercial licence of ZW3D and I could help in any way then you are alo helping for free. I would like to help also if needed.
Yasser

"Good evening, excellent video. I would like to know what things I would have to modify so that the length of the machine is 2500mm."

Nice job but others don't have milling machines.

Cortar las placas en un servicio de corte lasser

sweeeeeeeet design

This looks like a great project
I just finished my JDG CNC Plasma table.I would love the Fusion files .I think I could cut some parts on it.
Thank you for the plans
Roger

Can I give you a heads up on proper drilling techniques. You don’t step up in drills to a finish size, that’s how you destroy the lead cutting edge on the drills. Here’s a machinist rule of thumb. See that chisel edge at the point of the drill, any pilot drill should never be greater than 9/10ths the width of that chisel edge. Clue, a pilot is really only for large drills, like larger than 25mm. Now you may want to know the reasoning behind this. It’s all to do with pressure/stress at the lead cutting edge. With the correct pilot hole the pressure across the length of the lead cut edge is evenly distributed once the whole concave is formed, this minimises the occurrence of lead edge’s chipping thereby requiring drill sharpening. All small holes, generally anything under 25mm/1” will more or less self feed with little pressure provided all clearance angles are correct for material I.e. 118* for mild steel, just round up to 120* and use two nuts tack welded together, you have a natural gauge from the nuts forming a 120* angle. There are many ways to measure the leg lengths of the lead cutting edge from chisel edge to drill lands like using a right angled block to level chisel edge in horizontal plane, draw along block to scribe a line from chisel edge & land, rotate over & perform same action then compare scribe lines to determine differences in leg lengths & angles.
Doing this in your presentation will go a long way to prevent upsetting my OCD

That was great, thanks. Also very good of you to add the metric equivalent drawings.

Whats the spray paints name again?

I like your bender plans, but holding with your hands while drilling large sized holes!?
I don't know about anyone else but I love my 125mm variable speed Metabo angle grinder. I see no sense in grinder on full speed.

Do you make a 10' brake?

I think if my metal work teacher were more enthusiastic like you seem to be, I would have actually enjoyed the project and stuck with the craft instead of finding it again in my 30's.

Why set an angle grinder on fire when you have multiple? Use a fan or rotate them out it's just temperature.

when cutting with a band-saw, adjust the height of the band guide near thickness, use a drill press vice to hole the piece instead of your hand, hurts to loos fingers. lol this ones funny.. done that one a few times too. make sure your piece is flat in the vice, otherwise the hole will be sloped. (2) hands on a grinder...seen so many runaways lol ehh, think am done saying what i see, overall, thing looks nice. biggest hardest part of any project is starting and actually finishing it.

Enjoyed your commentary. You are the “Red Green” of metalworking. Great project that I want to tackle one day soon.

What is the max length and material thickness can this bend?
Have you tried it for stainless steel?

The biggest problem with your drill bits is the stepping up your hole size. The pilot hole should be no larger than the web of the drill bit. FWIW, I just always use a 3/16 pilot. If you get too big, the cutting edge is being limited to only a small portion of the shoulder causing it to dull easily. I've had bits taper because of it.

Oh man do I want one of those! Love the commentary… you sound like some shop teachers I’ve had years ago. Thanks for sharing

Oh man, you're so hilerious in a good way! Watching this was really fulfilling :D

Thanks for the 36" brake plans, I will let you know how it goes ! looks like a great design and a reasonably challenging project for my home shop. Your video presentations are entertaining and informative....keep it up ! Thanks for your time and effort its greatly appreciated.

3/8 or larger taps as long its not threaded deep any impact works wonders. forward and reverse its so much faster. 1/2 or bigger you have almost no chance of breaking the tap. i tried it after i use to watch a friend at work run a #8 or 10 tap through electrical panels chucked in a drill and driving it right through and not once broke one. i will never go back to a t handle again unless its all i have and im in a bind.

My brake is coming along fine but now I'm stuck. I cant make a quick release cantilever mechanism without a lathe, can I?

Lol, thank you sir and have a blessed day America

Im adjusting your drawings to fit the materials i have already. Mainly 4x4x1/2” angle iron instead of the 3x3x1/2”. Was there any specific math u used when figuring out the cam over center stuff or how much the clamp cam needed to move? Or is it not really that important and you just kinda went by eye?