I have an occasional want/need to bend some fairly thin aluminum or steel. Recently designed a simple bracket and had a local shop fab it for pretty cheap, but they just clamped it in a vice and beat it to shape with a hammer. I need at least one more of the same part and would prefer to do it nicer and not be dependent on that shop/have to find another shop.

Any of y'all have an inexpensive brake you like and would recommend? Or have a brake in the North Dallas area I could use to bend a part or few?

Here's the bracket I had made. It's an air compressor mount for a Jeep JL.

How much do you want to spend?

Back when I ran a manufacturing operation, we kept a 4' Chicago 12-gauge box-and-pan brake, like this one:

It's the handiest thing imaginable to do special 'one-off' projects with sheet metal and brackets. It has removable 6" fingers so you can bend not just in one direction, but also 90 degrees opposite, hence the term 'box-and-pan.'

I recall buying ours in the used market. I'm sure it's still in use somewhere.

I have one of these for making some brackets for aircraft
parts. Works decent.
https://www.jbtools.com/grizzly-industrial-vise-brake-h3243-h3244-h3245/

Gunny I hadn't seen that style. Interesting, but I bet my cheap vise would make it more difficult to get clean results than with a high quality vise.

Jags, I did review the HF offerings. That may be where I end up for now. I've seen some DIY builds that I can do cheaper and look to be of better quality. I haven't yet found the time to get after it though.

I'm definitely going to have the 8-foot version of this in my japantiger-esque man cave and mount room. Unless of course they make a longer one.

normaleagle05 said:

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I'm definitely going to have the 8-foot version of this in my japantiger-esque man cave and mount room. Unless of course they make a longer one.

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I don't blame you. I also had a 10' 14-gauge Chicago brake, but it wasn't box-and-pan. It was great for doing the first bends on long pieces, and then you'd put it in the box-and-pan and finish it off.

I think they had 12' brakes, but the capacity went down. I also recall power-assisted brakes, which I think used a pneumatic cylinder. It's amazing what you can find on the used market, and in online auction catalogs.

You're a week late. Just let my finger brake go last week for a steal.

I made a metal brake that fits onto a 20 ton harbor freight press. Works great.

SWAG offroad sells one that is specifically made for a 20 ton press, but I had the steel lying around and it was simple to make.

Only real downside is that I am limited to the 22" or so width of the press. However, it will bend some pretty heavy duty steel.

https://www.grizzly.com/brakes

If it's only a few parts, take it to a sheet metal shop and have it bent. HF makes a small brake that is OK after you tweak it like most other HF tools, but not sure how thick it can go even with Al. You aren't int he danger zone, but be careful with bending aluminum - much past 45 and it doesn't like being bent and starts cracking.

CenTexSmoke said:

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You're a week late. Just let my finger brake go last week for a steal.

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Yep. Been there.

When you NEED a tool, many times it's hard to find or you can find it but you'll pay top dollar.

When you finally sell it, you end up damn near giving it away just to get rid of it.

I checked earlier and the $70 HF brake is only advertised to bend aluminum up to 1/3 the thickness of the bracket in the pics, which is 1/8 inch.

Steel would obviously be better. I went with aluminum on the first one to limit how difficult it would be to tweak a first version of the design that has to clear some tight spaces.

we have a big one... south side of fort worth though

Thanks but that's probably a bit too far. I was in my off-road shop this afternoon and they have the ability. I'll be back over there pretty soon.

If you see that your bending of your aluminum is creating stress cracks all you have to do is increase your bend radius to prevent that.