Customer Reviews

30" Steel Bending Brake Sheet Metal Bender Tool

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This brake is heavy duty contruction with 1/4" thick steel angle iron frame. All surfaces machined precisely and does not flex when you bend sheet metal. You will need to provide your own C clamps through.

Compare its weight with the more expensive aluminium ones and you will know why those flex.

This bending brake works ok with light gauge sheet metal. Beyond 24 gauge and roughly 20 inches or more in metal width the clamping bar tends to flex up in the middle of the bend. With only the ends of the clamp bar clamped down the result is an inconsistent bend - 90 degrees towards each end and something less in the middle area of the bend.

Clamping down and aligning the front bar during set up is a bit cumbersome but easy to do. I like to use adjustable vice grips instead of C-clamps for the clamp bar hold down as this helps speed things up and works good.

Got this to make up some 28" wide 26 gauge gal. steel shields for an HVAC install. I'll just give some free advice: if you ever have a professional to install HVAC equipment, probably any professional to install any equipment, go ahead and read the installation instructions yourself and watch what they do. The city inspector knew his stuff, pointed out the screw up and was able to work out an easier solution for me - and I fixed it myself - after tidying up some of the professionals other work. Sorry for the rant.

The brake worked perfectly out of the box and is very solid. For a friends project, I was also able to bend a 1-1/2" wide X 0.090" steel straps with little strain but be sure to place the heavier stuff nearer one of the hinges to minimize distortion. Haven't bolted the brake to my bench, but rather use some c-clamps as suggested which work plenty well. Making each bend takes a bit of futzing - place the piece to be bent, place the clamping bar - which is heavy and awkward but has several convenient profiles ground into it - on your work piece at the proper setback, clap it down - I use smaller c-clamps and then just bend. Rinse, lather, repeat. I saw a writeup on another forum where someone with a similar but smaller brake first aligned the clamping bar at the desired location and then match drilled through the clamping bar into the base plate at the ends of the alignment bar to allow using some pins or bolts make repeatable placing of the bar easier when bending a lot of same thickness material. If you're going to make a habit of bending similar thickness materials, it sounds like a good mod to me.

I found this item was very good,was as described,very fast shipping,all around a very good buy, Great doing business with you. Thanks

Quality and easy to mount. You just need 1/4"x2" hitch pins or bolts to set it up

the top press plate is free floating. There is no way to clamp your work in to bend. I had to use deep throat vise grips to do the job. I say get the next better one.

Item was just as advertised. Arrived a day earlier than expected. Conditon was perfect.