Homemade Chunky Sheet Metal Folder (a bender / brake for weldmesh and other flat things) 

When I see you together, in any ways, I always feel glad! Thank you, dears! 💕

Well, I tried to bent the same kind of fencing in another way a few years ago. And I can tell you Sandra: you won't get it like Tim made it now! Perfect machine.

Yes Tim. Its VERY exciting. And very necessary. Every man needs a sheet metal brake. I'm actually jealous right now

That will be handy for many future projects!

Been working my way through your entire blog having come on over from your "workshop stuff" channel. Always an enjoyable run when a new machine comes online.

Fabulous job! I built a bender (brake in US speak) several years ago for bending relatively thin gauge steel like car body steel & I have often found it to be just what I need to make 90 degree bends for all manner of projects. It was thrown together from some scrap angle,, 2 inch by 1/4 (50x6 mm), using 3 pieces about 6ft long. Two pieces hinged with light weight door hinges, bolted in place in case the idea didn't work, the top clamp angle held by G clamps, no stand, just a bit of metal that fits into a vice to hold the thing. My business partners husband helped me & described the whole thing as a complete waste of time made worse as he got his fingers trapped at one point, but no serious damage. Then I did my first bend & it was glorious, square, sharp corner & none of the buckle & stretch that I used to get using a hammer to bend over something square. It lives in the wood shed, no paint just a patina of rust & then when I ask it to help me it wakes up, does what is needed & then returns to its happy rusting, dreaming of its next contribution. One of the most satisfying tools I have made. Thanks for sharing!

I love your wife’s comments about your need for machines. I laughed very much over that whole exchange. My wife also says the same thing about me. Sometimes it’s the building of the thing that’s the most important.

I worked in a sheet metal fabrication factory when I was young; your diy machine brought back some good memories. We vinyl sheathed, and bent large, up to 12x4 sheets of metal for various companies like HP, and other manufacturers. Luckily, if a sheet had even the slightest of blemishes, it was tossed into the recycle pile. These were sometimes fairly thick sheets with a durable thick coating of vinyl. I managed to get one just by asking for it, and used it on my homemade 8' x 3.5' workbench. The sheet I used was destined for Hewlett Packard medical equipment, and made the perfect top, and front for my bench. I used the companies pneumatic sheet bender to form the 8x4 sheet so it had a 6" lip for the front of the bench. I wonder where that bench is now? lol

You know what they say, "a grinder and paint make you the welder you ain't!" Keep it up and you'll be great in no time!

Despite Sandra’s teasing, that is brilliant and will do much more than you dreamed of, and do it quickly and well. I made a “mini” version some time ago, and when I need something bent up its there waiting to be used and ready to do a good job. Bent bits for boats for a friend, and stuff for me. Wonderful! Les in UK

I work at a sheet metal fabrication shop and this saves alot of work OMG. I love this!

Great job Tim. Having spend many years in shipbuilding it was good to see proper sized steel being used!! The welding comments that have been here made are very good and are important. It is important that the weld penetrates properly into the parts being joined and doesn't just stick on the surface. Taking time at the edges,as AtlasWalkedAway says, is the key. The thicker the pieces being joined the more important this is. The chooks will be very pleased! When I showed this video to my wife she was in complete solidarity with Sandra. :)

very honest and interesting dialogue from the misus

It's so great to see the rail system used again! In recent videos, it looked so neglected... good job all they way round! I loved Sandra's teasing at the end... and Tim's response. Well done, both of you!

Great work Tim! Bending weldmesh by hand is a real hassle and is quite difficult! You'll be able to bend sheet metal with that too so it should be nice and useful for future projects :D

"Couldn't you have just done it a less complicated way?" LOL - but then we wouldn't have this cool video for inspiration to build our own. Seriously though, I enjoyed watching this, and thank you for posting!

Simple, sturdy and easy to use. That's a winning concept!

You are always thinking Tim. Good work!!!

You definitely don’t need a good excuse for a beautiful well worked out tool that makes life so much easier….. I’d like to build one and your design is pretty awesome nicely done Tim

Nice job gentlemen ! Filed the video away, planning on finally building my own !

your going to like it. made one about that size been using it all the time. i still need to fab a square tubing bender for a future telescope observatory build

Nice Job Nothing like a Farm Made machine. With a life time guarantie

Neat! A well executed job. And the apparatus functions as expected! Nice. 😁👍👌

nice to see how much fun you have with your new welder ; ) and sandras reaction is just the best part of this vid for me

Getting things to stick with a mig welder is easy, and for these types of structural demands it's almost certainly good and we'll enough, but you'll want to look into technique if you're going to be doing any of the type of structural welding on which one's safety will rely. My biggest advice would be to slow down your zig zags by spending more time at the edges. That little lip that your nail would catch on if you were moving your finger from the weld outward is called gouging, and is a result of not depositing enough filler metal after the arc has carved away metal and converted it to oxides. Don't worry so much about filling the center, it will be fine, just move slow enough to keep consistent arc behavior. The gouged region is the weak point in the whole weld because it's exposed, molten metal without much shielding from the flux gasses or slag covering. All best practices can be deduced by a discerning eye making sure that the molten pool is more circular than oval-shaped and fills the gouged region. And for the strongest welds, leave the slag until it's cool or falls off on its own accord because you're just on that level of skill. The metal of the weld is still reacting surprisingly much with the atmosphere around it until it gets well under metal working temperatures, and odd reactions involving the hot catalytic splitting of water from humidity can cause hydrogen absorption, weakening the weld.

Sparks and straws really match. Making ten footer for aircraft building for my self.

Great project, and beautiful job guys!!

Tim, So-So. Sandra, Great. Dog, Superb!

Nice job building the metal brake. That will get used many times I'm sure .

Fantastic job Tim, I love your making machines videos. Looks better than my shop bought unit, I also like looking at bits of metal in the farm shop and working out what part they can play in my cottage engineering. It bent that Cork metal easily, but will it bend Kerry metal ?

This one ups Colin Furzes sheet metal bender. These machines are so useful, you'll find many projects that this come in handy for. I wonder if there's a clever quick release solution to the clamp, as tightening and losening that off will be the bottle neck in your operation. If you can do it quickly I reckon you'll use the machine even more often for all sorts of jobs big and small

Excelente trabajo saludos desde Argentina

Lol that's the wifey for you,... great job guys nicely done

One can never have too many machines around.

SANDRA ! How very dare you mock Tim's bending machine .😯😁😉

I am tempted to make one too!

Hints of sarcasm from Sandra at the end. Good job though, does exactly as it's supposed to.

I have always wanted one of these.. now you have me thinking.. hmmm can I make one of these similar to yours.. hmmmmmmm.......I don't think Sandra is that impressed with it from what I saw at the end.

Great idea, I meant to build one for years, finally, I found one for free. Might I suggest you look at the width of the moving jaw. When you have a brake you will find you can use it for lots of things. You will find that you are limiting the size of the "Z" fold you can make. My bending brake, which has 50mm moving jaw, which in practice is limiting, I can't fold a "Z" shape of less than 50mm on the diagonal direction. I hope this helps!

my Mother would have said "Ah Lovely - Another Spider Condominium." ........ nice piece of work though ......... ;-p

You watch ! That machine is going to be used and used. With a Tim and a plasma cutter around, you NEED a bending machine. Great job!

Very good.

I love the lady :)

Great job 👍🏻

Hi Tim. Very nice metal folder. Could you tell me please what is the thickest sheet metal it will bend?

She didnt seem impressed enough. I would like to see a retake on that from her.... 😎 But that could be the biggest compliment ever in that she isnt surprised anymore by you building nice stuff....

"But do you need a machine to do it" .... hmmm , you can leave my now shed please.🤤

Sandra... a man can never have too many machines that do simole things...its a boys thing....😊

Nice and sturdy. Only i would use Threads from clamps and big wingnuts rather than such normal allthread or bolts... It would take ages to Clamp stuff down everytime

Very clever indeed ! I want one of those welders now ! Lol

Super job

Efficient and effective! Well done. :)

Your wife may not be impressed but I sure am, well done

Excellent work👍👍👍. Thanks for sharing.

Who down votes these wonderful people? 🙄

keep your weld beads as cool as you can , no more under cut edges👃

I think Sandra was teasing you, Tim. 😁

Tim, take some solace from the fact that a genius is never appreciated in their own home.

Don’t let her discourage you ! If it were something she needed well that’s a different story ! My wife is the same way ! Lol. After 36 years I got it figured out , I think ! Lol

Sandra, looks like a giant ironing machine to me! 🤔

Great machine that will last many lifetimes. Shame about the negativity at the end - ah well ........

Well done! Job's a good 'un.

good one thx

Cool.

Careful with MIG: it's really easy to produce a weld which looks great but you need to remember to dial in some penetration if you want strength as well as beauty in your welds. You're probably actually MAG welding (Metal Active Gas), the gas is usually a blend of Argon, CO2 and Oxygen. The Oxygen (typically 2-3%) is there to act as a wetting agent by causing a fine layer of oxide at the surface of the weld. This produces a smoother looking weld. The CO2 (typically 5 -20% depending on the particular blend) reacts in the arc and puts heat into the weld. Higher CO2 gives deeper, narrower welds. We use 5% CO2 blends for thin sheet work (auto body type thickness using 0.6mm wire) and 20% CO2 blends for thicker section, 6mm and above with 0.8mm wire. I'm just starting to learn about the flux cored, 'gasless' wires at the moment, mainly because I'm repairing some welding sets but don't have any gas cylinders where I'm currently working and don't want to start up a new contract for cylinder rental with business being quiet at present. I need to test the repaired welding sets before sending them back to the customer. My friend, when he was teaching me to use MIG, referred to it as a 'Hot Melt Glue Gun for Metal'

I've got a cattle panel like that leaning against the fence that could use a 90* bend in it!

Lol @ Sandra's comment. But hey, the machine does, what it's supposed to do and it does it well. And as someone, who has recently struggled big time, to design and built a simple chest with drawers...I applaud you 👏👏👏. Also: thats like the biggest chicken wire, I've ever seen. Or never seen, rather. Is it called something else (in German, if possible), when the squares are that size? It might come in handy in future diy projects for me...🙂

be careful. MIG has one nasty trap. Your welds always look brilliant and than one day ... some just separate from the material. Make sure that you get it hot enough, otherwise they can just sit on the top of material looking great.

Top

I’m with Sandra - and I’ll be embarrassed for it!

Could it be made with lighter material like say 2inch angle iron. Love the idea

Grand....Now, is the TIG welding really easy?

Josss apek bro

😂🤣 Agree with Sandra.

A MIG welder is just like a hot glue gun, except the glue is really hot!

To answer her question, NO, you cannot make as neat, straight and as crisp of a bend as this without this machine. Go inside and make some hot coffee and some strudel...

In the US these are called 'breaks', really should be benders.

I hope the hay on the floor is fire proof!

Do I see straw on the floor???

Is the low video quality (480) just at my end? I feel I miss a lot ...

Hey do you still do Beekeeping?

7.20 I'am impress really but do you relly need a machine to do this XD XD XD XD

Is this the guy that narrates for Thomas the Tank Engine kiddie show?

You said elf, whats wrong with swelf, lol.😂 iance, swye ,dry.

Salty Sandra 😂

Dear Way out west blog couple. 👍👌👏 Hehe, LOL 😁 it's a worldwide well known fact that women are simply not able to understand, will never and maybe even don't want to understand a mans affinity for heavy metal things to work respectively play with. 😂😁 Very well done! This bending tool works really well and very accurate. Now what to bend next? 😁 Thanks a lot for making teaching recording editing uploading and sharing. Best regards luck and health to all of you. Postscriptum: Maybe you could/should invent some more comfortable handles so that you don't have to bend your back to operate the bender.

Oh to have that much money for a mig set up complete with gas etc rather than the cheap mickey mouse flux cored wire type. I will just keep on with my old stick welder until that day. The CNC plasma cutter I would have to mortgage my house for.

Do you really need the machine for this lol 😁 yes yes I did

Пожарная безопасность где? ( солома)

women ... sometimes they just don't understand the joy of such things :)

Don’t think Sandra was impressed.

mig welding is EASY, rofl, says the farmer welding gates, ever try to weld a car panel my man?

Goodness, watch out for fire. Welding over dry straw is... Well... Frankly... It's a terrible idea. Don't want to burn down that nice barn.

What’s with robot voice ?

I watched until I learned the cages were for elves. I think that its barbaric to force those little elves to live in cages, they should be free range.

хто ж у сіні варить?

LMAO, Such a Woman Question, Do you need a machine to do this. The Answer is Always Yes, Yes we do... I just remind my wife about the Pots, and Pans she has collected.... I swear she has Pans she hasn't used but Once.