24 inch finger brake

Fantastic work! And thanks for showing what issues that article was in. I'll be ordering them!
 
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I would like to build a finger brake and have purchased 2 of the 3 issues of Home Shop Machinist with the plans for a brake. They were out of the March/April issue and I don’t know where I could get it

Can somebody please DM me the first part of this series? Thank you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I ordered and received the back issues. The steel places around here aren't "scrap yards", in the sense that their steel isn't rusty, but it also means that it's around $2.50/lb, and I bet the assembled brake is around 100 lbs. So now there's deciding whether it makes more sense money-wise to build this, or spend roughly the same on something new or used... It's the age-old question, do I want a tool or project.
 
kb58 said:
So now there's deciding whether it makes more sense money-wise to build this, or spend roughly the same on something new or used... It's the age-old question, do I want a tool or project.
Click to expand...
If I were a pro, I would not hesitate to buy it. As a hobbyist, however, it is easier to justify psychologically buying the material and spending an unreasonable amount of time on it, overall making it financially unsound. Did this with my welding table; bought the flat top with fixturing holes, but built the structure. After using it for a few years, I had a sense of its limitations and scrapped the bottom, replacing it with a new one that is much better suited to my needs.

I might do this brake as a multi-stage project as well.
 
The shop made machine by Inflight is beautiful! Might even have better working envelope (clearance height) than the commercially available machines.

As I mentioned in a prior post, few months ago I bought a heavy duty 24" Pan & Box Brake capable of bending 16ga steel for $476-
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The brake is fully usable out of the box. For whatever reason I did not like the very sharp edge of the fingers so I ended up making a new set of fingers from 7075 aluminium with a nice radius at the edge. I am very happy with the performance of the brake.

There are lighter weight version of this brake (20ga steel) is available for around $400- shipped on eBay with some better deals elsewhere.

Given the high material costs it might make sense to buy one and tweak it as needed. I am not sure that the heavy duty version that I bought have anything different from the cheaper brake other than the counterweight to help with the force needed for bending.

Anyway, this is the perpetual build/buy decision especially for a hobby. For me it is a build when I can materially improve on what is available off the shelf.

Ariel
 
Yes, a beautiful build, congratulations. So far, i’ve made do with a 12” HF box brake, which has worked quite well for any work in aluminum. I made a 45 degree ram and matching die for the HF 20 ton press, and I can bend 1/4” steel straps easily with that, but have not tried anything tougher.
 
Though we're getting off-topic, I've considered that, making bending forms for my 12-ton press instead....
 
koenbro said:
7a89a584d8d20c602b421aca6cbb95ef.jpg



I would like to build a finger brake and have purchased 2 of the 3 issues of Home Shop Machinist with the plans for a brake. They were out of the March/April issue and I don’t know where I could get it

Can somebody please DM me the first part of this series? Thank you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...
Were you able to get the first issue? If not I have it and can copy the appropriate pages for you.

I've started on my finger brake build and have most of the small hardware done. Next up are the channels and the flat bar pieces. Instead of CRS I decided to go with HRS. Hot rolled is about 35% cheaper where I live. I'm also going to use 3/8" flat bar and fab the channels instead of using channel iron shown in the article. Should make for a more rigid build.
 
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