A real sheet metal brake

http://www.lonestaronline.com/listings/details/index.cfm?itemnum=1074378548#DESC

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IMHO - Not a great one. I’d be willing to chip in to. nice brake w/ adjustable fingers. Maybe Tennnsmith? I’d go thirds or even halvsies on this: https://www.irvansmith.com/scart/tennsmith-model-s4822-4-foot-straight-bending-brake-p-3452.html?utm_source=googprod&utm_term=TEN-S48-22&gclid=CLGxm77oo8wCFQcKaQodfMEB8g

not great, no - but far better than the one the Space has now.

I would wait till we have the plasma back online before we invest in more sheet metal stuff.

I just ran across this while looking at brakes. I may have to buy one for myself.

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2 models of Grizzly were discussed as possible starting points @ the last Metal Shop Committee meeting.
Chuck ( @dallasmagna ) or David (@Photomancer ) would probably know more about the particular models in question, but from memory, one was a sheet metal brake (like we have now, but better and bigger) and one was a “box brake/shear”, which is the finger-type, I believe.

Alex suggested we look at better quality brake and shear. We’ll be doing so. It’ll have the adjustable fingers on brake, shear replaceable blades.

Also slip roller.

Is there a finite timeline for the cnc plasma cutter to be online?

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Also discussed at the last Metal Shop Committee meeting. Finite, no. But progress, slow, agonizing progress, IS being made. Alex & Chuck are working feverishly to have bids for actual work before the next board meeting so the $ can be approved. But you can’t force contractors and I don’t think we’re willing to pay enough to bribe them into swift action.

What I find ironic is the fact that one of my customers is a welder / machine builder and his neighbor (in the same small industrial park located in Lewisville) is a metal fab guy with a 60" x 120" CNC plasma table and has no “special ventilation” over or near it.
Lewisville in his case and Carrollton (DMS) all adopt the same building codes from BOCA / ICC. The Fire Marshall that inspected the DMS must be vying for employee of the month I suppose.

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His plasma cutter is probably not in an enclosed air conditioned room.

I meet with a contractor yesterday and told him I need the bid by Sunday at noon but I don’t have it yet. Another contractor fell through.

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I vote @TBJK’s that looks awesome.

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+1 for @TBJK’s suggestion, or at least a pan/box brake. I’ve been wanting to make a decent sized planter box.

I have several projects that would benefit greatly from a decent sheet metal shear and brake. I need to make about 40 EM pinball head back door panels for games of mine that have missing rear doors. And several of my planned custom arcade and pinball builds will require custom bracket fabrication that I could do myself if I had the proper tools.

Custom lockdown bars :slight_smile:

We had about $5,400 requested on the agenda for the last Board Meeting, but they ran out of money before they got to it. This was for a nice box & pan brake, a large foot shear, and a roller. We will try again next Board Meeting.

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Thanks for the update @dallasmagna!

May I strongly suggest that these tools be manually operated only, not hydraulic. This will prevent someone from trying to sheer too thick of material. If they can’t sheer it with the foot operated lever… they should not be trying to sheer it in the first place.

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Also, leverage/extension bars should be an explicit “no-no”. I’ve seen someone break the yoke of a shear that way :rage:

If you watch ebay and the auctions you can pickup a decent sized hydraulic press brake for under $2000, w/6 or even 8ft capacity. Sometimes even w/tooling, but it can be had cheap too. Probably hold out for a hydraulic or hydra-mech one, as the mechanical ones w/spinning flywheels are more maintenance, older and dangerous. I’ve bought a few over the years. If you find one local I can I can haul and install it when i am in town(winter), a 6ft 35ton will weigh about 5-6tons, but we can go bigger.

The magnetic brake is very cool. A few companies started making them when the magnabend patent expired. The patent holder is a cool guy, he has instructions for how to make one, might be a good DMS project: http://aaybee.com.au/Magnabend/Magnabend_Homepage.html

An iron-worker would be a nice too.