There are many ways to bend sheet metal. If you’re looking for crisp and clean right angles, a brake is your best option. There are small brakes, large brakes, and super-expensive high-quality production brakes. And let’s not forget about the many, many homebrew brakes.
Although we’ve seen quite a few DIY brakes, several recent designs caught our attention for their clean appearances and well-thought-out functionality.
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Homemade Mini Bend Brake – A small easy-to-build design by Instructable member Improbable Construct. The brake is mounted to a 2×4 cut-off, which is then gripped by a bench vise. Pop the brake into a vise when you need it, store it away when you don’t.
Large Sheet Metal Bending Brake – This <$100 brake is large enough to bend large multi-foot spans of sheet metal. The brake was designed by Dave Clay to help with his DIY aircraft fabrication project. (via Make)
Elegant Brake for Bending Aluminum Plates – This brake, designed by Runaway Brainz, is capable of bending thicker aluminum plates. The article also offers tips, such as how to use a circular saw to cut channels into aluminum plates to facilitate bending.
Do you use a homemade metal bending brake? Tell us about it!
E_Baker
This is an excellent posting Stuey!
Mohammad Yamin
I saw your sheet metal bending jig very interesting would it be possible for you to send me other Metal benders
Lee
I have a 30″ metal brake but I can’t figure out how to make a 5/8 Z bend in a strip of metal 3/4″ wide and 3″ long. The 5/8 bend needs to be in the middle of the strip.