Sheet Metal Brake

Make your own 36″ sheet metal brake! (LINK TO PLANS BELOW)

My first design: 3 hours from “in my head” to “in my truck.” Not without its flaws:

While it did rockers and transmission tunnel on the V8 Firefly “ok,” it really was a piece of poo.

I did a wack of Googling and found an inspirationally cool set of plans that I liked HERE.

I adapted it to suit metal I already had on a shelf, and this happened:

With a sexy rendering:

Which, of course, led to this:

And you can build yours!

(Now in questionably accurate METRIC!)

CLICK HERE FOR IMPERIAL PLANS!

CLICK HERE FOR METRIC PLANS!

So far:

  • Success: 12″/30cm of 0.100″/2.54mm aluminum
  • Success: 28″/71cm of 0.039″/1mm sheet steel
  • Success: 30″/76.2cm of 18ga/1.2mm steel – with 1×1/2″ bar bolted to folding bar

*** NOTE: you need to add 1×1/2″ bar to the folding bar for more rigidity ***

And later, I made a rolling stand (still need to cut a second shelf, but for me, wood is for wheel chocks, sub boxes, and protecting my drill press table):

CLICK HERE FOR IMPERIAL PLANS!

CLICK HERE FOR METRIC PLANS!

 

Featured on bangshift.com:

John from Australia built one:

Stefano from Italy built one:

Brian from USA built one: