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Bending sheet metal

S

silverphoenix

Gawd
Joined
Feb 15, 2006
Messages
780
I'm making an external wc enclosure and using 16guage sheet steel, now My school has a shop that I'm using and they have a metal brake for bending sheets. Now I want precise cuts so anyone have good experience tips for operating one? like I need to bend a 28" plate into 8" piece and 20" piece. do I just draw the line at the 20" mark and clamp down so I can barely see the line? or do I cover it just up? Sorry for such a silly question but I just wasted a bit of money on angle aluminum cuz I didn't do my hw...
 
From what I remember, you want to draw your line on your piece, align it so you CAN see the line, then bend. If you do not see the line before you bend, you will bend just next to it rather than on top of it. You have to try to imagine that the bend will consume some of your sheet metal (just a tiny tiny bit) on each side of the line you draw. So you want to see the line after you clamp, but the line needs to be very close to the edge you bend around.

You will also need to bend it a good bit further than 90 deg to get a 90 deg bend.

Warning, if you use a metal scribe to etch the line into your sheet metal, make sure you only scribe on the inside edge of your sheet metal. If you scribe the inside and outside, you'll likely break the part in two rather than bend it.
 
^ What he said. The line should be right at the mouth of the brake. You dont want the line to be clamped down because that part isn't going to bend.
 
complexx said:
From what I remember, you want to draw your line on your piece, align it so you CAN see the line, then bend. If you do not see the line before you bend, you will bend just next to it rather than on top of it. You have to try to imagine that the bend will consume some of your sheet metal (just a tiny tiny bit) on each side of the line you draw. So you want to see the line after you clamp, but the line needs to be very close to the edge you bend around.

You will also need to bend it a good bit further than 90 deg to get a 90 deg bend.

Warning, if you use a metal scribe to etch the line into your sheet metal, make sure you only scribe on the inside edge of your sheet metal. If you scribe the inside and outside, you'll likely break the part in two rather than bend it.
Click to expand...

about how much further should I bend than 90 degrees? I'm using 16 guage standard steel sheets.
 
silverphoenix said:
about how much further should I bend than 90 degrees? I'm using 16 guage standard steel sheets.
Click to expand...

Well, the nice part is that after you make your bend, you can always push it a bit further if you haven't achieved the angle you wanted. Make your first attempt at bending and stop at 90 deg. You'll get a good feeling for how much further you need to go to finish it.

Good luck!
 
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