I have a 4' finger brake on it's way from Woodward Fab and I was wondering what kind of things have you guys created with your brakes? After seeing the thread with all of the bead roller creations ,there must be some interesting ideas out there.My next investment is going to be a planishing hammer........PAUL
On one of the Ron Covell videos, he used a brake as sort of a long clamp to freehand bend some gentle curves in large body panels. He clamps the edge of the panel in the brake and puts a bow in the metal and keeps monkeying with it until it has the right curvature. He makes it look easy, but I'm sure it takes a lot of practice. Some people make home-made special dies that sandwich between the fingers and the sheet metal to do radiused bends. The die doesn't have to be fancy -- you can use like a piece of round rod welded to the edge of some rectangular rod to make small radii, or weld a piece of round tubing to some rectangular tubing for making larger radii. I made the radiused bends for a rectangular gas tank for one car with 1/2" radius bends by clamping the sheetmetal between a home-made die like that and the edge of a steel table and beating the flap up around the radius of the die. It sure would have been easier if I had had a big finger brake to do the clamping and bending. I always wished I had one of those big finger brakes, but I wouldn't have the space for one even if I could find one cheap. Congratulations on getting one!
so are you going to buy or build your planishing hammer.i've got a 5ft brake i have used it about every day to form all sorts of patch panels .they do come in handy
This is a cross section that we cut out of what was left in my 54 wagon door seal,,,,the numbers were marked to determine in what order the metal was to be folded. As you can see 7 different brakes. This is a photo of what we were able to do with my brake,,,,after recreating the seal and welding it in place. HRP
I'm thinkin about buying a planishing hammer. I think I could build one, but by the time you gather the right pieces and try and "make something work " ....I would be time ahead by buying one.I have a harbor freight bead roller that I have " converted" into a useable tool but when you get right down to it it's still a harbor freight tool.... Paul
would not be 1/4 of where i am on my A if i did not have a brake bed and sub structure, ac duct work, gas tank, fire wall
Mine is the 4 foot Grizzly which has removable fingers for getting in tight areas,,,HRP http://www.grizzly.com/products/G5769
A finger brake is different than a regular brake and has separate finger that are adjustable to allow lips to be turned on all four sides. Here is a crude drawing showing the difference.
If your going to be doing any sheetmetal work you have to have a brake, I use mine everyday. I also built a dedicated radius brake, use it just as much. www.datinmanjay.com/index2 Pick a page, any page. (yeah I need to do an update, sorry)
At my age (soon to be 43 ) I hope to learn just a 10th of what you guys know when it comes to bending and forming metal!! SLAG - nice work ,looks like you've bent your share of metal ! HRP-I wish I would have found that Grizzly brake a little earlier .I thought I researched it the best I could .That grizzly has a counterweight for about the same price as th woodward fab.... Kiwi Kev-That trans tunnel is very cool .I'm sure alot of planning went into that! Tinman -I've spent time on your website before ,I found it on one of the metal fab sites.You are one talented dude! Where did you learn your skill? Hot rod Tom I hope you are wrong.....We'll see. My first project is going to be to build a pair of innerfender panels for a '50 F-1 I'm working on .I ordered some from a reputible company and when they showed up the were the wrong gauge and all scratched up so I made a pattern and sent them back. I'm also building a custom dash and console ,making a form with 1/4" roundstock and welding 20 ga. to it . PAUL
I learned a the basics at Genhardts. Rich and Jacklyn both taught me a lot, we built some badass rides! Within a year I was doing all the tinwork and had learned to tig and mig. By the time I left I was doing everything but the chassis, and I did some of that too. Drag cars kinda became a drag bout 4 years ago so I'm trying to shift gears a bit. I 'm havin a blast building this truck!! Lots of other pics in my photobucket: http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff198/Da_Tinman/
Dont misunderstand me, the Woodward Fab brake will probably do most everything you will need it to. I am just not a big fan of crap chinese machines.. As long as you dont try to bend something too heavy you will be fine.
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