Homemade Mini Bend Brake

Intro: Homemade Mini Bend Brake

In this Instructable I will show you how I made a Mini Bend Brake to bend some 1/16" aluminum.

I needed to make clean straight bends in strips of aluminum for my Hidden Bookshelf Light Switch.

I had pretty good luck bending the aluminum in my bench vise, but it was hard to keep the bends square and even.
So, this is what I came up with.

STEP 1: Gather the Parts

To build this press brake you will need:

Parts:
20" of 1" angle iron
10" of 5/16" steel rod
2 - 2.5" narrow hinges
2 - 1/4"x2" bolts w/ nuts
4 - screws
1 - chunk of 2x4

Tools:
drill 
drill bits 1/4" and 3/16"
something to cut the angle iron (band saw, hacksaw, cut off blade, cold saw)
a small square
a welder
a vise of some type (drinking and smoking won't work here)
2 vise grips or clamps

STEP 2: Cutting

First thing you need to do is cut the steel. I used my 4x6 band saw to do this.

Cut 3 - 5" pieces and 2 - 2.5" pieces of angle iron.
Cut 10" of the 5/16" rod for the handle.

STEP 3: Setup

Grab 2 of the 5" pieces of angle iron and clamp them into a vise as shown in the first picture.
It is very important they are aligned perfectly.

Next, take the last 5" piece and clamp it with vise grips as shown in the second picture.
Again, make sure this lines up perfectly with the first two pieces.

Then, get your hinges and set them on the angle iron as shown in the third picture.  
The hinges should sit tightly in the corner formed by the three pieces of angle iron.

STEP 4: Welding

Get your welder setup and tack the hinges onto the vertical and horizontal angle iron faces.
Unclamp the vise grips and check that the hinges move freely. If all is well, clamp it back down and fill all the screw holes with welds. If it is binding, break the tack welds, check your alignment and try again.

Next, unclamp the vise grips and flip the hinged piece so the hinges are closed.  
Careful it may be HOT from welding!

Take the10" piece of steel rod and weld it to the angle iron as shown in the fourth picture.
Center it and make sure it is square.

You'll notice that you didn't weld the third piece of angle iron onto the break.  You can set it aside for now.  We will come back to it later.

Note:
The pictures show some modifications I made to the angle iron to allow some very close step bends.
I needed to bend 0.5" step bends and, obviously, 1" angle iron would not allow this.
You can skip to the end to see why I cut the angle the way I did.
If you don't need opposite bends any closer together than 1" you will not have to do this.

STEP 5: Drill and Assemble

Now you have the welding taken care of, its time to drill some holes and mount the brake.

Drill 2 - 1/4" holes---one near each end of the piece of angle iron that does not have the handle welded to it.
I centered each hole about 0.5" in from the end.

Next place the brake on a piece of 2x4 as shown in the second picture. Use the steel as a guide to drill 1/4" holes through the wood.

Here is the tricky bit:

Drill 1/4" holes near each end in the third, unattached piece of angle iron.  
This piece of angle is going to attach to the break with its corner facing away from the hinges as shown in the third picture. 
The location of these holes will be determined by  the thickness of material you are going to bend.
I made my brake to bend 1/16" aluminum, so I offset the third piece of angle iron by 1/16".
You can make multiple pieces for different thicknesses.

STEP 6: Guides

I added a final pair of angle iron pieces to my brake to speed up the alignment process.
Grab the two shorter pieces you cut earlier.  
Drill two 1/8" holes in each one as shown in the first picture.  Positioning is not critical here.

Next place the pieces on the back edge of the brake as shown in the second picture.
Be sure to position each piece inside of the bolt at the end of the main brake section.
Use a square to square each piece to the break, and screw each piece to the wood.

STEP 7: Time to Start Bending

Putting it to use:

Loosen the nuts and slide your material into the break between the pieces of angle iron as shown in the second picture.
Align the metal to the guide and tighten the nuts down. 
Don't over tighten the empty side.  The angle should sit flat on the piece you are going to bend.

Next, lift the handle and bend the metal as shown in the third picture.
Loosen the bolts and remove or re-position as needed.

There you have it! One bent piece of aluminum!

Check the rest of the pictures for more bending action.  Some of them provide info on my mods for close bends.

Thanks for looking! Please check out my use of the brake in my Hidden Bookshelf Light Switch!

Comments

[hothmob]

I have a bigger brake/bender/shear, but this would solve 80% of my little bending jobs. Thanks! Great instructable

[Bverysharp]

I have been planning to make a sheet metal brake for a while, and something around this size will do the vast majority of what I want. Thanks for the great instructable. I will try & post a photo when mine is done.

[spark master]

way cool looks just like a scaled down version of th eunit the gutter guy used after last storm.

here is one fer 20 schadoles, but then there is shipping...

http:// www.grizzly .com/outlet/18-Mini-Mighty-B ender/G9951

[mikeyj2015]

Or get this 18" for $30.39 with coupon.

http://www.harborfreight.com/18-inch-bending-brake-39103.html

[mikeyj2015]

Same as this one at HF and no shipping for $46.39 after 20% off coupon.

[Upir]

Did it... Kinda. Mine bends stuff down and with the use of some modified F-clamps, I can put in some spacer dies to do boxes.

[vinz3nt]

please, share this as an instructable, I'm very curious!

[Gelfling6]

I'm in the middle of creating a walking robot, and wanted to build a pair of Servo frames for X/Y movement, and when I saw this design, it gave me a few ideas on a simple brake design, using a single heavy-duty barn door hinge, and a U-Bolt plate. It still needs some better foundation, but your hinge idea has it going in the right direction! Thanks!!

[chris_w]

Those hinges look to be galvanized. It should be noted that welding
galvanized metal is dangerous and a suitable mask should be worn and the
welding done in a well ventilated area. Right, having said that, great
instructable and I'll be making a slightly heavier duty bender based on
this idea

[Upir]

This helped me a lot in figuring out how to build just what I needed. Thank you muchly. Here's a pic pre-painting.

[satish_munot]

Will it Cut PCB?

[MiX3DJD]

What is the thickness of the 1" angle iron?

[astral_mage]

stanard 1x1 angle is 1/8th inch thick

[astral_mage]

to a 1/4th of a inch thick

[padbravo]

Tks for the idea...
just one question: the distance or space that is between or offset on the "vise" (where you clamp the alum to be bended) have to be the thick of the alum? that is the idea?

[streetrod5]

I've been wanting a box brake for years - I'm going to make this one tomorrow. Great 'Able - nice photos and clear instructions.

[djaco]

Elegant little brake.

But you're confusing your vises with my vices.

[Improbable Construct]

Right you are!
I am still not sure if I have too many vices or too few vises or, is that the other way round. Edits to be made shortly.

[streetrod5]

It's vice versa.

[gmiguel]

Very nice, useful and cheap. Thanks.