Does anyone have any experience (good or bad) of this type of 3 in 1 guilotine / brake / roller? And if they're a reasonable bit of kit, any brands to avoid / prefer? https://www.rdgtools.co.uk/acatalog/3-IN-1-COMBINATION-SHEAR---BRAKE-AND-ROLL-24INCH-99090.html
I’ve used what I think is the same one as sold by Axminster Tools - bought one where I used to work. Works fine, obviously made in China so it benefits from being stripped and cleaned properly, maybe with some of the rough edges filed off. I don’t think you can work much beyond the limits suggested (1mm steel), obviously will do more with aluminium, and probably less with stainless, maybe 0.8mm. Useful as you can do box folding as you can set up the appropriate size fingers (are they called fingers??).
i have the one from machine mart and agree with the above, strip and clean it and it works great for a little machine. you may want to bolt it down as i find when your shearing and bending 1mm it tips over with the leverage. https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-sbr305-3-in-1-universal-305mm-sheet-me/
I've got the 1 meter version of it and I wouldn't say it works well without tweaking. Almost impossible to line up the bending segments to get a clean line but for smaller jobs it's ok. The shear is the worst, needs beefing up both horizontally and vertically. The fixed part flexes downwards and the guillotine will bend making a full width cut impossible. I knew this but got it for about 100£, was a return from a disgruntled customer of the local seller of fine china. Have modified it so it works but not perfect and not to full stated capacity.
I'm considering a 24" version. Do you think your mods would be enough for that? (How long id a piece of string?!) And what mods did you do? Do you have photos? That's not encouraging :-(
I have one myself, a 305mm one from AIM Tools for £200. With a bit of fettling it does what it says on the tin - don't expect it to work with thicker than 1mm steel and you'll be happy enough with it. Got another one (610mm) for work and it is just as good. Used a bigger (either 760mm or 1016mm) one on a course elsewhere and it had issues with flex - think a brace had broken on it and had to be sorted. I find I use the shear and the rollers more than the brake.
If you can get a well made one then happy days but after the customer service I received from Warco I will never deal with them again.
I have got the smallest (300mm?) version. It's ok but i would not pay the 400+ retail for it. Only part of it i use is the box folder for small electrical boxes and things. That needed all the teeth reworking when I got it to get them in line. The guliteen and roller are not a lot of use. They do both work but the max metal they will cope with is so thin its normally quicker and easier to chop with a pair of tin snips or roll by hand around a bit of tube. Mind you I do have a big guliteen so never really tried it much. Mate of mine spent about £800 on the bigger one, has done a lot of the bodywork for his series 1 rebuild on it with no problems. He has it bolted to the top of a roll cab so cant really chop metal as it all tips over. I think he found the limit of the folder in terms of depth capacity a few times as well.
Thanks everyone. Any thoughts on brands which may be better quality? My guess is Machinemart is no better than anything off eBay, but at least you can return something easily if it's crap. WNS is more expensive - do you get much more when you pay that much more?
I have got the axminster version, I though that apart from being white, it was identical to all the others? I just presumed they were all made in the same place in China and the company ordering them could choose the colour. Maybe they can choose the finishing tolerance as well but none of the teeth on mine were anything special.
Machinemart was better out of the box than AIM tools version but I'd be surprised if they weren't from the same factory.
