Hey folks
Does anyone have a bending brake that will do around 30" long? I need some 1/4" angles made out of something like 16ga steel, and I cant find anything online to buy.
I can do up to 10 Ft at at work, but I’m not sure it will do 16ga steel. I do mostly .040 and .063 Aluminum.
Angle iron from the home improvement store is too thick I imagine?
Same and was thinking the same John
Bob,
I assume (there is that word again) that your talking about 1/4 by 1/4, 90 degree angle. Very difficult to fabricate even with a press brake because of the narrow material width having purchase in the bed when bending. The fact that material thickness is one fourth your finish dimension doesn’t help the situation. Your best source would probably be a local sheet metal fabrication shop.
You should be able to find extrusions in the size your looking for, McMaster-Carr??
Wold some other way/material work, what is your application??
Rick
Bob McCown said:
Hey folks
Does anyone have a bending brake that will do around 30" long? I need some 1/4" angles made out of something like 16ga steel, and I cant find anything online to buy.
Bob,
Rick is correct about trying to bend your own stock with a bending brake especially with the thickness you are talking about…16ga steel. That’s .059".
I know I’m talking about material for an 1/8th scale locomotive, BUT…I needed some pieces of angle stock that was 1/2"X1/2"X 16ga steel and it was 26 inches long. I had a sheet metal shop bend this for me and the cost was very fair. I had 28 pieces, 26 inches long bent in this shape and the delivered price was $80 including the cost of the material. That works out to $2.85 each. Any sheet metal shop can do this for you no matter what amount you need. AND they are all exactly the same size. They have the heavy duty bending brakes youi need to do this kind of work. A hobbyist bending brake WILL NOT do this.
Bob,
For clarification there are sheet metal shops that produce HVAC ductwork, architectural sheet metal, metal flashings and similar ilk that utilize a sheet metal brake with an arm that ones displaces to bend the sheet metal, MAX capacity is 16 gauge at half the width of said brake width. 16 gauge is the MAX they work with as they don’t typically have a need for a higher capacity press brake IME… I’d be surprised if a typical sheet metal brake could produce acceptable/repeatable results @ .25x.25x.059.
A sheet metal fab shop is more likely to be able to help with a press brake and the appropriate V die on hand. Yet as Rick alluded there are issues herein with such a small form factor even with a press brake.
Michael
http://www.mcmaster.com/#aluminum-angles/=11auca9
Here is the aluminum angle.
I work in a sheet metal shop, I can verify on Monday but I think we are limited to 5/16" flanges for .060 material.
Nico
These are the pieces I had bent by my local sheet metal shop (Brady Sheet Metal here in Burbank,CA) for seven Baldwin electric 1/8th scale locomotives. These are rib structures for the sheet metal cabs and are made from 16ga sheet metal. the flange dimensions are 1/2 by 1/2. Every piece is identical (checked by digital calipers). When I had these made about three months ago, I inquired about other sizes and I was told I could go down to 1/4 by 1/4.
Does it have to be steel? McMaster-Carr is my preferred source for that type of stuff, though it seems all they have in 1/4" is aluminum.
Thanks everyone for the tips. I might end up going with aluminum.
Wasn’t sure what a bending brake was but when I googled it I found this;
36" and does up to 12 gauge .1094; with 16 gauge being .0625
Might help
Hey Bob I have a 48" finger brake rated for 16 gauge. I’m not sure how crisp the corner would be. Also, do you have the sheet cut to size? I don’t have a shear that can cut that thick. I think shearing would be about the only way to get a nice cleen cut outside of a water jet. I’d be willing to give it a shot…
FWIW:
I found a scrap piece of 16 gauge galvanized sheet metal 24" long. Sheered pieces at .5", first attempt was with an older heavy metal, made in the USA 8’, 16 gauge capacity straight hand brake. Satisfactory results were had! Tried again with an old 48" 16 gauge capacity heavy metal made in the USA straight hand brake, it was to much to ask of it… It’s doable on the press brake, but required some set-up time and I had better things to do.
A Straight brake is not a Pan or Finger brake. A continuous bending bar is utilized verses multiple fingers.
Michael
my thoughts on it are if you can go to a shop, they can do the bend then cut the angle off and repeat the process from a sheet of the proper sizes, then after each bend shear it at your required size. had one close do some brackets with one bend and they said , give me 10.00 for my time, gave them a 20.00 and said I would have more later
Bob What are you going to do with that type of angle.
Dennis