Finger Brake: Useful Tool or Waste of Money?

[SteveHGraham]

You should really look at the book. You won't regret it, no matter how many years you've been welding.

[warmstrong1955]

It might be a good book, and an interesting read, but I don't have a problem with things warping, so for me, it would not be $17.50 well spent.

[SteveHGraham]

How did you guess that the entire book is about warping, without reading it? That's amazing!

[warmstrong1955]

How did you guess that the entire book is about warping, without reading it? That's amazing!

You talked about set-up and clamping, and warping.
Nothing else.
So.....what am I to think it's about?

[SteveHGraham]

Title is a hint.

It's about designing steel structures, and a lot of it applies to any kind of material.

[warmstrong1955]

I did that for a living....like the LHD's in my avatar.....

But, feel free to buy me a copy as a stocking stuffer for Christmas!
I'd sure read it!

[SteveHGraham]

Fine. I'll just keep the Hooters gift certificate for myself.

[warmstrong1955]

Fine. I'll just keep the Hooters gift certificate for myself.

Well, you could throw that at me for my birthday!
I'll be 21.....and a few months....soon!

However, the only Hooters in Nevada is in Vegas, and that's over 500 miles from here.

But thanks for the thought.....

[whateg0]

I don't know what you intend to use the brake for, but most stuff I just air bend, so much of my work wouldn't touch the bottom anyway. Instead of a fixed die, I have different dies that I can drop into use on my press. Again, most stuff is air bent, so I just used two pieces of round stock spaced apart by "tlar" distances. If I need a coined corner, I have a piece of angle that I machined sharp on the inside that I can drop into place. If you have an angle grinder, you can do some massaging of the inside corner with that, too.

Dave

[SteveHGraham]

I finished the brake today. I welded from the center out. I did intermittent welding. I didn't weld the seams from one end to the other, because I don't think they need it, and it's an invitation to warpage.

The fit of the guide tubes, which gets screwed up when you warp the brake, appears to be exactly as it was before I welded the bottom die in place. It's not perfect, but that's because Offroad Swag makes the upper bar a millimeter too short. It functions perfectly, but if you look down at the tubes and rods, you can see that the tubes are on centers a tiny bit wider than the rods.

My guess is that a lot of guys weld these things to death for looks and then complain about warping which they caused. Maybe the people who warp their brakes know more about welding than engineering. It doesn't need a ton of weld to function correctly.

Now I have to learn how to use it. That will be interesting, because I don't have the air jack yet. The only compressor I have right now pumps something like 5 CFM, so it might be slower than my right arm.

By my standards, the welds were stellar. Things are getting much better.

[Bentworker]

That turned out nice.

I always thought it would be neat to make a set of adjustable (acme thread) positive stroke stops for each side to make one of those little press brakes more like a real press brake. With stops you could have bend repeatability, and with different height stops on each side you could make compound bends with different radius on each side.

If I didn’t have a buddy a mile and a half away with a 110 ton press brake I’d be buying one just like yours.

[warmstrong1955]

And there ya go!
Very nice!
I do’t see any problem with the skip welding. Tats how the ones I built were done, except for one, and it warped a bit.