Quick N Fast Press Brake

Because of bad luck with our china press brake

We decided to do an fast hack. Because we do CNC Mill and Lathes we are well equipped.

So you need

A Mill, Lathe, Welding tool drills gear cutter

and youre done

but it was great fun

Step 1: Make a Plan and Collect Needed Items

We do CNC Mill housing using a mechanical press brake

but unfortunately the machine did not work well see the picture ,..

so we decided to do a quick n dirty solution which helps us in more ways

1) We reuse the steel blades form the china brake

2) We have an turning lathe Klippfeld K10B

3) We do milling machines so we have an Thojomech 12

4) We have an Harbour freight type of Press

then we simply have an U Shaped Steel as base

then an milled bar (you will see the pictures )

and turn an guiding rod and have some pipe welded to the bar.

on top an ring wich has to be exactly centered.

Step 2: ​Prepare the Square Bar Mill It

Prepare the Square bar.

Start milling

Make the step a little less deep than the press modules are. (6mm in our case)

Mill the step we had to mount it 2 times because our mill can "only" do 440 mm

then we programmed peck drilling and had all 80 mm an hole.

Then we cut the M8 gear. We used the Mill table as working platform worked well.

Next time we would probably go for an synchronized spindle and also cut the gears by cnc but that is another story.

Step 3: Doing the Center Ring

We decided to have an perfect centered ring

So first we had to turn

The ring to the diameter of the Press bar.

Then we Drilled 4 Holes and (see Foto)

Cutted gears in

then we put the ring back on the mill

and cutted an exact nut into the ring to tight fit the bar

This should ensure 90° Angle and gives more room to weld.

Step 4: Preparing the Base

So now we prepare the base

1st We prepared the 2 guiding rods by turning them a little step

then we took the u-shaped profile steel and cut out the ends and drilled the 2 holes

they have to be really precise

look at the picture this shows where we pointed the rods to get them proper angeled

Step 5: Finnishing the Top and Align With the Base

We now cutted the 2 tubes same length

Then we cut the L Shaped profile steel exact in length.

Then wen welded it to the base and assured that because of heat it doesn't bend.

And now we made sure that it all fits together

we had to mill the ends of the main bar on both sides to the perfect wideness

On the picture you see the final fit test.

It is important that all is proper angeled that you have less friction.

Before we final welded everything

we did the holding plate from an flat steel bar. which we clamet to the main bar and drilled the holes for exact fit.

We then used the "fingers" to align everything for final welding.

it is important that the round tubes are welded angeled and centered which we did by welding it as shown at the picture. (the welding trafo we used is more than 45 years old and started to smoke ) so we had some welding issues but finally it worked.

Step 6: Finnish

We used the brake in plain condition

But we need to grind the welding parts and paint it

so we simply want to encourage people to build their own stuff

have fun