Choosing a sheet metal folder

[neptune]

I want to make up some nose cone ducting from aluminium panel. So i'm thinking the best way of bending it us to use a sheet metal brake. Each panel will be no more than 500mm, and the aluminium will be 2mm max thickness and I don't have the time to make on myself.

What makes do you recommend ? 

[AdamR]

Having the same quandary myself right now, also keen to see what's recommended 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

2mm thick over that width would be beyond the capability of most "hobby" folders and brakes (machine mart etc).  Do you need to do it as a single 500mm bend or can you split it into two or 3 tabs that are no more than 200mm long?

for most of my bending I design the part so as to have tabs rather than long bends and then use one of these.

Http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/263707057848

for the very rare occasion I need to do anything longer then I take it to my locally engineering firm who normally only charge a couple of ££.

 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

As Mark said, that’s a “huge” bend for a hobby type folder, even one with enough throat width to accommodate the raw sheet.

I had a sub hundred pound one from Machine Mart, which was OK on thinner thicknesses of alloy, in narrower strips. But wouldn’t achieve the sort of sharp edge bends I suspect you’re thinking of. (The cheapest commercial made folders I’ve seen that will do, have been £3/400 and up, if I’m honest. Fine if it’s something you’ll need t9 use again and again, but even then, thickness of raw material, and sharpness of fold can be your enemies.

Unless you need a radical new design, forth or fifty quid used to get you the pre folded aluminium parts fro Westfield anyway, even if you need to tweak the shape a bit, they’re still a good start for many applications. (Aerorace radiator duct kit is the item to ask for).

Otherwise, you are probably best getting something folded by your nearest local engineering place at the sizes you mention,

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

- 2mm thickness doesn’t sound much, till you start trying to do it with precision over 200 or 300mm plus lengths!

[darve]

2mm is a bit thick for ducting 

[6carjon]

I'm using corrugated plastic sheet......

[Arm]

Clamp between 2 sturdy pieces of angle and dress the edge down

[neptune]

Thank you all. I'm glad I asked before splashing the cash.

I already have the ducting, it just needs shortening to fit inside my nose cone, so I will find somewhere to bend it for me.

[TAFKARM]

2mm thick will help with front end downforce too! :D

[SXRORY]

13 hours ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

As Mark said, that’s a “huge” bend for a hobby type folder, even one with enough throat width to accommodate the raw sheet.

I had a sub hundred pound one from Machine Mart, which was OK on thinner thicknesses of alloy, in narrower strips. But wouldn’t achieve the sort of sharp edge bends I suspect you’re thinking of. (The cheapest commercial made folders I’ve seen that will do, have been £3/400 and up, if I’m honest. Fine if it’s something you’ll need t9 use again and again, but even then, thickness of raw material, and sharpness of fold can be your enemies.

Unless you need a radical new design, forth or fifty quid used to get you the pre folded aluminium parts fro Westfield anyway, even if you need to tweak the shape a bit, they’re still a good start for many applications. (Aerorace radiator duct kit is the item to ask for).

Otherwise, you are probably best getting something folded by your nearest local engineering place at the sizes you mention,

do they still sell that kit? as I as have not seen it on their website 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I think this was the one I had.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cmf24-sheet-metal-folder/

But the limitations on what it could do could be quite restrictive at times. It certainly wouldn’t do “crisp” tight bends in the 1.6mm aly  sheet that I needed. Though for other basic stuff it was ok. 

I priced up a press brake that could do what I wanted once, and it was ~ £600! And even then it was only good for under two foot wide, but it was a proper box and pan press brake. Though again, at that price, around 1.6 mm aly sheet was at the limit. Doing thicker and on longer runs and you were into the thousands very quickly.

My experience at the time, was that you paid for accuracy, tightness of bend, thickness of material and throat width of the machine, more or less in that order. (With finger options for box and pan folding ratcheting the price up fast).

In the end, I found it cheaper and as effective for what I wanted to do, to either do smaller bends manually - though that little gizmo @Mark (smokey mow) Posted a link to would have been superb for that, or make my own almost one off folders, to do specific jobs, out of angle iron and old rose joints!

 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

I did have the same machine Mart folder as Dave posted a link to. It worked fine over the width on 1.2mm 1050 aluminium but wouldn't do a decent bend in the same thickness of 6000 series aluminium. The edges of the sheet closet to the hinge would be ok but it's in the centre where they struggled the most as there's not enough steel in them to stop the tool from bending.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

1 minute ago, Mark (smokey mow) said:

I did have the same machine Mart folder as Dave posted a link to. It worked fine over the width on 1.2mm 1050 aluminium but wouldn't do a decent bend in the same thickness of 6000 series aluminium. The edges of the sheet closet to the hinge would be ok but it's in the centre where they struggled the most as there's not enough steel in them to stop the tool from bending.

About the same as my findings. (I tend to use the higher grade aluminium sheet, and gave up on it with that bender, though with softer stock, in 1.2 or less, it was decent enough.

Not being in the fabrication game though, I tend to just get one sheet of stuff and use for most jobs. So it’s heavily over spec’d for some of the light duty bits and pieces that you make up.

[AdamR]

5 hours ago, 6carjon said:

I'm using corrugated plastic sheet......

Have also used that before with good success! 

Thanks for the brake press info, think I'll pull the trigger on one. Will report back if anyone is interested.