Sheet metal folder (345)

[old foolParticipant @old-fool]

Thanks to Alex du Pre for his sheet metal folder, that’s a bit of equipment I hope to add to my shop before too long. I was especially interested to see how he made the hinges. I’m hoping my version will be a little larger. My workshop used to be a stone-masons, so I’ve used the old stone saw bed to make my bench. It’s about 1″ thick with tee slots, the bolts for them are 5/8″ ww! I have the gib strip off the old saw fitted to slots on the top for holding sheet metal down (It’s 3″ base by 2″ on the spine).

So far I’ve folded sheet by hammering it round the gib rail but I think a folder will give me a better job.

Leave that till I’ve got a bit less time as they say

Bob

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Bob, I made one of a very similar design in my last day job, most of the folding jobs there were farmed out to a shop just down the road. who had a modern heavy duty break press. The one I made was for the more occasional small folding jobs, and the one I made was 1m wide, but the holding down angle was a piece of 120 x 120 x 15mm angle, and had a piece of 60 x 12mm flat stiffing bar stich welded on the inside corner, this had the two edges of the angle milled flat to each other, and a heavy duty piece of rectangular hollow section was welded on each end for 24mm holding down bolts. The base plate was a piece 200 x 30mm flat bar, with the folding angle being 150 x 100 x 12mm, and with a couple of 100 x 50 x 6mm channels welded on in two places on the inside corner of the angle, which also acted as stiffening gussets, with a U shaped handle of 25mm bright round bar. It could fold a piece  2.5mm mild steel, but only about 1mm max., just, of 316 stainless steel. The point is the wider you go, the thicker and larger the sections need to be. I do like Alex’s idea of using a piece of flat bar for the second fold of his U shape profile.

Regards Nick.

[old foolParticipant @old-fool]

Thanks for that Nick. In my souveneers (posh name for junk) I have a piece of 6″x4″x 3/8″ angle which I think will make the moving section when bolted to the front apron of the bench. It was how to make the hinges which was troubling me a bit. My version will be about 3ft wide. Commersial ones have large weights on arms connected to the moving section so when you get it going inertia helps. If you’ve got the strength to get it moving in the first place!

The downside of those, apart from cost and being able to source 1 is sheer size! Not in abundance in my shop, and I suspect most others.

Bob

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, Bob, the weights are there to counter balance some of the weight of the folding beam, which is pretty heavy in itself, and if you are doing quite a few folds in a session, you can feel it, even with those weights, and if you take them off and swing the beam up, without actually folding anything, you will soon realise how heavy the beam is, but yes they are normally big and heavy machines.

Regards Nick.

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

I have a small ish commercially made one. In simple terms it is 2 lengths of 2″ angle and a piece of 1.5″ x 3/8″ flat bar. The lower angle is the body with lugs at each end  and nuts welded underneath to allow the upper angle to be clamped down to hold the work. The flat bar has lugs on the end that act as the hinge. the flat bar also has 2 handles about 12″ long that allow you to raise the bar to bend the work. It is about 20″ wide and the width of the work is what really limits what thickness one has the strength to bend. To use it you hold it in the vice and it is the bench and vice that need to be well fixed. Noel.

PS an old trick taught to me by an old blacksmith was to weld 2 lengths of 3/4″ solid bar together at one end, a GOOD heavy weld, leaving about 1/16″ between them and say 16″ long. Place metal to to be bent between the bars and clamp in the vice, now just carefully hammer over. quick and simple, still have the one I made 50 years ago and the weld never did break. N

[old fool]

On 19 October 2024 at 07:04 old fool Said:

Thanks to Alex du Pre for his sheet metal folder, that’s a bit of equipment I hope to add to my shop before too long. I was especially interested to see how he made the hinges. I’m hoping my version will be a little larger. My workshop used to be a stone-masons, so I’ve used the old stone saw bed to make my bench. It’s about 1″ thick with tee slots, the bolts for them are 5/8″ ww! I have the gib strip off the old saw fitted to slots on the top for holding sheet metal down (It’s 3″ base by 2″ on the spine).

So far I’ve folded sheet by hammering it round the gib rail but I think a folder will give me a better job.

Leave that till I’ve got a bit less time as they say

Bob

Is there a link to the bender you mentioned

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