Another press brake. Lots of pictures.

[chrisgay@sbcglo]

Hi Jay,

Thanks for taking the time to make such a nice post, complete with clear pictures and tutorial.
Your work looks real good. I make and/or customize a lot of my own tools and machinery, too- a "habit" I picked up from my father.

What caught my eye, though, was the cool hand-wheel you made for your bead roller. There's nothing like home-made, right?

Keep up the good work and good luck with school.

Happy New Year to everyone.

-Chris

[jbyrd]

Hi Jay,

Thanks for taking the time to make such a nice post, complete with clear pictures and tutorial.
Your work looks real good. I make and/or customize a lot of my own tools and machinery, too- a "habit" I picked up from my father.

What caught my eye, though, was the cool hand-wheel you made for your bead roller. There's nothing like home-made, right?

Keep up the good work and good luck with school.

Happy New Year to everyone.

-Chris

Thanks Chris,

My grandfather gave me the bug to build my own stuff. I tell my wife that part of me is really glad I am not rich, because if I were then I wouldn't have the fun of building all the tools that I can't afford!

I built the that bead roller out of the Harbor Freight one. I didn't have a tubing bender, but I had a lot of chain!



Jay

[smooth72]

Really nice project and thanks alot for taking the time to make this into a tutorial. Alot of us really appreciate it! Happy New Year and good luck in school and on the job front.

As said, thanks, you do great work and great write up. One question how did you finish the edge on the top die?, to a sharp edge?, if so how to make it uniform?

[jbyrd]

how did you finish the edge on the top die?, to a sharp edge?, if so how to make it uniform?

I did not make it into a sharp point. I ground a 45 degree angle on each side of the 3/8 inch plate with a 1/8 inch land in the middle. I used a grinding disc to rough it, a flap disc to smooth it out, and then a flat file to finish it off. The hardest part about doing it this way is to be carefully of rounding the ends. I keep the 7" grinder tight and close to my chest and use my whole body to move the grinder the length of the plate. I also lift up before the end of the plate because no matter what the pressure that is on the grinder will invariablly round the end. I then finish the last bit with a flat file. Just takes time. Hope that helps!

Jay

[smooth72]

Thanks, that does help.

[gordsgarage]

Nice work Jay, clean build, well thought out. The work is a pleasure to look at.

Gord

[ligito]

I built a welding cart that is steerable, from looking at others carts here.
I will now change that to swivel pneumatic casters and use the straight chunk of the steerable axle assembly that I got from a riding mower, to use for my brake.

It looks natural to take it, grind an edge and straighten the pivots, to use for this purpose.