Unusual Old Edwards metal folder

[mm289]

Thought a few of you might be interested in this. 1930's FJ Edwards, but i've not seen anything quite like it.


Stripped it down, gave it a clean and moved it to its new home - god this thing is heavy

The upper clamp is like a piece of railway girder that has a former bolted to it. The former has a square side and a profile side and can be bolted either way round to give 90 or ~135 bends.


A couple of odd things are the height the former can be raised to - nearly 6" - makes me wonder if it had fingers originally as an option to allow it to work as a box pan folder.

Also the turrets on the side that the height adjuster sits in also flip to one side so you can remove the former/girder easily.


And finally in its new home.

To give some idea of its bending capacity a couple of examples, some 1.5mm and some 7mm!!! The 7mm only is bent that far cause I didn't have the strength to lift the handles higher - not cause the bender wouldn't take it


If anyone has any info on this or ideas on what it would have been used for then that would be cool.

Cheers,
MM

 

[cumbriasteve]

I used an identical one in my apprenticeship, can't remember any fingers being there for it but there was the occasion we had to wind it fully open to remove some of the intricate shapes we had bent.

Amazing how much F J Edwards stuff that must have been made, my own hand knife in the workshop was made by them, it must be from circa the 60's or 70's and I don't think the blade has ever needed sharpened..total quality.

 

[stormin]

Nice old machine.
There doesn't appear to be any method of adjusting the set back of the folding blade or bending edge to adjust for material thickness and bend radius.
Thats probably the reason you could only bend the 7mm so far it got to a point where you were trying to crush it or reduce the thickness between the two edges rather than bend the piece.

 

[mm289]

The bending edge is adjustable for thickness, there is a knurled hand wheel just behind the "hoop", forgot to mention about that

MM

 

[stormin]

The bending edge is adjustable for thickness, there is a knurled hand wheel just behind the "hoop", forgot to mention about that

MM

I noticed the handwheel but when I first looked couldn't see how it was adjusting anything. Now I've looked again I can see it adjusts the hinge points of the folding piece back and forwards.

 

[Kent]

There are many versions of folders like this often useful for square to rounds etc
Looking on my phone so can't say much more
Don't go bending 7 mm that's the reason many no longer bend true along the bend length and why so many are sporting repair welds

 

[Tigman]

probably meant for 16 gauge only , certainly not 7mm

 

[mm289]

yeh, not using for 7mm guys, just was interested to see what it would do

Cheers,

 

[Kent]

Give it to a few big lads and it will bend pretty much anything that fits in till it breaks or buckles out of true and becomes junk

 

[mm289]

Once I get my big mill up and running I will probably clean up the edges on the former. Also will play around with some sections of box to see if I can use those instead of fingers, clamped between the rail and bed to allow me to make folds in "box's"........

Cheers,

MM

 

[DAPPH]

I have an inkling I used such a machine back in the mid 1960's in my apprenticeship days .
It seems a god project to convert it to hydraulic rams instead or as well as of having the hand bar .