mini sheet metal folder

premmington · Nov 4, 2007

been doing some bodywork repairs on my van, has anybody made up a mini (18") sheet metal folder, for making repair patches that fit...?

Got any design ideas....?

Angle iron, clamped in vice type thing....

http://www.remmington.plus.com

Luke · Nov 4, 2007

With 2mm plate (range rover sill repairs), i cheated and scored the fold line with a 1mm disc, folded it by hand over the edge of the bench, and welded the fold up. worked well.

Welderpaul · Nov 4, 2007

premmington said:
been doing some bodywork repairs on my van, has anybody made up a mini (18") sheet metal folder, for making repair patches that fit...?

Got any design ideas....?

Angle iron, clamped in vice type thing....

http://www.remmington.plus.com

I made a folder - i will post pics tomoro

oddball90 · Nov 4, 2007

Clamp two bits of angle iron in vice with metal in between then block of wood and a Hammer. Must make myself a folder!

snowcat · Nov 4, 2007

Welderpaul said:
I made a folder - i will post pics tomoro

Ditto made one too sit on me bench, saves the walk outside, ditto on the pics

shenion · Nov 4, 2007

Here's mine: Sheet Metal Bender

If I did it again, I'ld use a heavy duty piano hinge or just stack up a bunch of heavy hinges.

Welderpaul · Nov 5, 2007

Sheet Metal Bender

:laughing:

Here a a few pictures of a sheet metal bender i designed and made a few years back. Following post with more pictures and a description...

Welderpaul · Nov 5, 2007

More Pictures

Welderpaul · Nov 5, 2007

sorry about all the pics - went snap happy!
The sheet steel which i have bent is 2mm thick. Max of 450mm wide sheet.
The steel angle is 50 x 50 x 8. The surfaces which contact the sheet have been ground true with a ring grinder (Like a surface grinder), and again used to form the leading edge along the length of angle that the sheet is folded against. The rest of the steel used for the folder is all pretty butch!

I have even migged it - stick welder must have been playing up that day! Take note where the pivot point is located. The centre of the pivot must line up with the edge of the angle, so it is let in to the edge of the angle and welded up. I made an adjustable backstop to account for different sheet thicknesses. Works great.
Any questions? :hug:

snowcat · Nov 5, 2007

There you go, another one just for an idea, The most important thing is strength, if you make em flimsy they just bend and warp, and make everything out of square.

arkangel06 · Jun 13, 2008

make an overlaping skin drill it out and put cherry max rivets in or if you can get at the other side use real rivets

engybenjy · Nov 21, 2008

Welderpaul: Thats looks mint! I'd like to make something like that myself :cool:

Welderpaul · Nov 21, 2008

engybenjy said:
Welderpaul: Thats looks mint! I'd like to make something like that myself

It does a good job - gives a tight fold.

araspitfire · Nov 22, 2008

The miller website has a small folder (the are called brakes in NA... not over here?). In their project section. It seems to be a copy of this one:

http://www.metalworking.com/Dropbox/_2004_retired_files/Sheet_metal_Bending_Brake_Plans.pdf

I build one that is lighter (but shorter) using their basic designs. (must take pictures). I messed up the location of one hinge a bit. It opens a gap at one end by half a mm or so when bent. At my current level of requirements it works fine though, but I plan to build one that lets me bend 2mm at over 60cm anyways... it was a test attempt, and I know where to pay more attention on the next one.

Al...

aero · Nov 22, 2008

Nice pictures.

i know what I'm making next

paul33 · Nov 22, 2008

wrong thread DOH!

posted a couple of photos on the wrong thread last night - now trying to link to them. hope this works - not done it before

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=8580

dopplershift · Dec 10, 2008

Hey Welderpaul,

What are the dimensions of the bar that you used for the handles on your bender? (thickness, width and length of handles?)

I'm making a ~1m wide bender at the moment from ~100x100x8mm angle. Was thinking handles of 40x8mm bar, around 75cm long.

Thing is tho; I want to bend up to about 3mm sheet at full width, if at all possible. I cant help thinking that mild bar wont be strong enough with such long handles.... what do you guys reckon?

The other alternative is a ~1", 1.5m long round bar from a set of barbells (eg -[]------[]-, the bar that you hold above your head, with the weights on the ends). I think this would probably be strong enough (not mild steel??), but dont really want to use (or weld with it) it if the mild would do.

Oh, also... do you think the 8mm angle will need bracing to cope with 3mm+ sheet? eg more angle welded on the back to form a box, or triangular gussets between the two 'legs' of the angle L?

madkayaker · Dec 10, 2008

What about a length of scaffold bar that should be strong enough/

dopplershift · Dec 10, 2008

haha... I keep hearing of this mysterious "scaffold bar" on these forums.

Might be a UK thing 'cos Ive never heard of it before... what is it?

Obviously its used in scaffolding. All I can think of is scaffolding pipe (maybe 50-60mm diameter x 4mm wall) used for scaffolding here.... but thats not what your'e suggesting right?

madkayaker · Dec 10, 2008

That's the stuff. Not sure about the wall thickness ours might be thicker.

mini sheet metal folder

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