How to use a Metal Bender - Steel Sheetmetal Brake (Finger Break) 

I have tried to explain a brake press to about ten younger people now and they all look at me like I am high on meth!! You see back years ago around 1977 I was in junior high school and we had a finger brake press in our metal shop at school.....and one of the projects I made for class (and grade credit) was a toolbox on the brake press!! My one step son is 38 years old and when I told him about what I learned in 1977, he said to me "I would just make square parts and then weld them together to form a box!"!! He has NO understanding of WHAT a brake press is, and what it can do!! I forget the make of the brake press I used in Junior High School, but I DO recall it is very large (of course that was back in 1977 as I said)!! And you could make a lot of difficult bends on it by removing, positioning and adding fingers to it!! It really was a great experience for me....and I wish I had one of them NOW that I am doing body work on my truck all the time!!

I run a CNC press at work, have been bending for about a year now, was a welder/fitter before that. I have never seen a manual press before, very cool. Good work, I always use a scribe of some sort, soap stone works well too! One thing I really like, are manual calipers instead of digital, so you have more than one way to measure.

Thank you so much. I'm taking applied mechanics and the way the professor explaining everything was incredibly dry with equations and charts. I had no idea what he was talking about for 2 hours. This cleared up everything in 10 minutes!

Good info for beginner's specially about the sharpie line . If using markers always arrow which side of the line you got to bend always works for me

I learn something from all your videos but learn even more from ones like this. Thank you for sharing with us Gary.

Gap (set back from edge between bending leaf and base) on clamp leaf (upper leaf) should be twice the thickness of material you are bending with a hand brake. This is what manufacturers reccommend. I have an old "Chicago" power leaf brake which bends 1/4 inch 12 feet long and the factory reccommends 3 times thickness of material on those machines, for example 3/4 inch set back on 1/4 inch plate. A 1/2" capacity machine would be set back 1-1/2 inches on half inch plate. More set back is easier on the machine if you can stand more radius. I bend thinner stuff (14 gage or 16 gage at twice material thickness. A properly set up press brake bends a sharper radius than does a power leaf brake. But a power leaf brake is more versatile than a press brake and safer as well. No brake or material will bend sharp 90 degrees with no radius, thin material (24 or 26 gage might look like it but the radius is there.

I switched over to a scribe a while back... It's made all the difference. I used to use a mechanical pencil for detail work. Talk about a game changer.... Great tips on the break. It's always a sequencing mind bender to get the panel flipped right and bent properly.

Great tips for beginners - thanks!

I am a sheet metal worker, and my last name is Ramsey! Props

Nice tutorial, Gary. I don't have much experience with a brake like that and you filled in a lot of blanks for me. I might be in the market for one soon as well so this was great timing. Best wishes, Tom Z

Great info on the brake Gary. I wish you had been putting these up many years ago when I started doing metal duct work but RU-vid didn't exist yet. :-)

Thumbs up purely for the little square!

Great tips, thanks. I know very little about sheetmetal, but know I know a little more.

Thanks Gary, I am such an amateur on Metal fabrication, I get it done but so basic compares to you.

Thanks for all the detail. Like my grandfather used to say, measure with a laser and mark it with a crayon :-)

Good tips Gary. I used to do a lot of aluminum bending as we made our own trim and drip edge, etc in the storage barn shop I worked in, as well as when doing vinyl siding, all the wood trim got wrapped in aluminum. Lots of challenges for different shapes.

I always set the gap at 1.5 of the metal thickness.

Novice here...I assumed a bendwas a bend. Thanks for setting me straight.

Depending on what you want to do, you could put a mildly bent piece back in the brake by removing some fingers, inserting the work, then sliding the piece sideways under the remaining fingers. Very limited, yes, possible, yes.

you do great teach

Thank you so much I have to bend 24ft of flashing before a gutter gets installed. Never used one before.

awesome video..love the tiny square

Your videos are good and I enjoy watching them. I also like to watch because I'm envious of your shop and workspace! Keep up the good work.

Gary you the man...thanks for sharing the info

Do a bend allowance and material calculation video. How to measure inside and outside bends.

You need set the head back to allow room for the gage metal. The space between the clamp bar to the bending edge should be twice the thickness of the Gage metal you are bending.

Thanks for posting this, I found this very helpful!

Really helpful video. Thanks for posting with so much detail. New subscriber.

Brake is adjusted too tight, the clamp leaf (upper leaf) should set back twice teh metal thickness on a hand brake (three times on a power leaf brake) otherwise you over strain the brake and it eventually shows up, I have had a number of brakes over theyears of this type from my Chicago 1/4 inch x 12 foot power leaf brake ( still have it , my main bending machine) a a SO 10-14 Chicago, an 8 foot 12 ga Chicago (both of which I sold at over new price) and a 4 foot 16 gage Connecticut (Roper Whitney) box and pan (a still have). The 8 foot 12 gage needed a lot of repair of parts broken from this type of overloading . You will never get a "folded paper" bend in metal that is not very thin, you will just gradualle damage your machine. Stick with the 2X setback 9

Thank you great info for use beginners

Hi, I just found your channel. Your doing some great work here. Keep it up.

Thank you

I saw a guy put his thumb in one on accident. It wasn't pretty. He ended up with a flat thumb. Be careful. Safety first.

Good stuff. Do people still use thus stuff? Thought the world 3D printed everything. I learned a lot of this in shop class 1976.

A white out marker with a ball point end is the most accurate marker on metal we gave ever used .pentel brand blue and white bottle you will never go back to markers

GREAT VIDEO I JUST ORDERED THE SAME BRAKE FOR MY SHOP CANT WAIT TILLIT GETS HERE

Super valuable info, thank you

Many Thanks. This was very informative.

Good video. Good explanation.

Looks like a quality brake and a reasonable price. Was it made in Taiwan?

Great set-up video. I have some blokes giving me a hard time about the hydraulic folder at work. They are saying the brake needs packing under the fingers along the length of unused area. Am I right in saying this would only apply if the thickness sensor (cutoff) is incorrectly configured, putting unnecessary strain on the fingers?

When I had my company before I sold it I would get any trade person to do a small project in the hand box and pan to see if they knew how to fold it. If they could not fold it I then knew they could not use a hydraulic CNC press brake so would have to teach them the process of folding. It is not something that is easy for a lot of people.

That angle iron that is bolted to the bottom part, is that just for extra leverage to bend the peice of material ? i bought a Tennsmith brake with fingers but it does not have the holes to mount that peice. They sell 2 versions, one with and one without. This one is 22ga and the one with is 16ga rated, so I am assuming thats the difference. How come such a heavy duty brake can only do 22ga even with out that ? This one sells for like $900 new.

Just found this. Is there a link to the vid where you built the piece? I have access to a brake and need to do some bending. Your tip on the largest section and work out is a huge help but I learn visually much better. Cant find you video on the actual build. Thank you for sharing! subcribed

Great video, thank you for sharing

Hi Great video do you know how to convert that finger brake to hydraulic or air instead of manual? please let me know Thank you God bless you

Some great tips

Great video.

My favorite method for marking on metal is to use a machinist square and scribe. I'll slide the rule to 1" and then using the square against the end I need a mark of 1" on I'll scribe it. Hope that makes sense...

I didnt know what a scribe was. That's what I used my calipers for. Better get a scribe so I don't wear out my calipers.

good info Gary...

Very precise in calculation. That's how you do a great job. Please who made your break and what is the cost?

Good tips Gary

Hi Gary. Great video! You mentioned the levers are used to put tension on the metal piece. But when you pull them downward, what keeps them in place? Thanks!

Very helpful, thank you

Just found your channel and I'm blown away. I do have a question though, how do you account for the radius that is put in the metal after you bend it?

you should back the finger up to the thickness of material with aluminum or back side will split

I now have one of these G0542 brakes and it's great. But I need to make closer bends for a project so I need to remove the bending wing angle attachment ( yellow) . It looks removable. Have you ever removed yours?

Hi Gary, Thanks for the informative video. I have just bought the Baileigh equivalent of this machine, they are identical - probably made in the same factory and branded differently. Do you find that there is back and forth play in the top clamping beam? So you can grab the clamping beam and move it towards and away from you? Mine has some and that's because there is a bit of a gap on the backstop adjustment mechanism. Just wondering if in use this becomes a problem? Thanks, Andy

1.2 steel ... if I have a 25mm fold and set it up 23.8 as I need to - the thickness of the steel and the fold comes out @ 25.9 do I then take 0.9 off or 0.9 on to get the 25mm fold

Gary, how far off the wall does this brake need to be in order to be used? Trying to figure out if I have enough room in my garage or if I need a brake without the counter weights

Thanks for the video.

I work a trumpf cnc press brake for work. I have been interested in buying a small manual press brake for bending up light fixtures. Pretty interesting stuff. First time I've actually seen how one works. My question for you is if you had a square piece but with a small amount extra material on each side except for the corners of .060 and wanted to put a 90 on each side to create a perfect square with a lip on each side is there a way to adjust the length of tooling to so I could fit it inside of two 90 degree angles? or if I wanted to gauge a 90 degree bend off of a 90 degree bend to make a U(couldn't think of a better way to explain the shape) shape on the ends would that even be possible? Doesn't seem so how the machine is set up. Thanks for any advice if you see this haha

How you like that box and pan. I'm thinking about getting one. Thanks for the video

How can you fold metal in half on an edge?

Thanks for the video..what break is that

cool tips ...

THANK YOU GARY !!!!!

l use a center punch on my line, shows up much better

I have the same brake. I’ve never done 12/14 with it though.

How long have you owned that break? Would you buy it again?

I really want to get a set of Stans little squares. Those babys are sweet!

Where can I get the small square and what’s its name

5 Friggin' minutes on the art of putting a 1" mark on a piece of flat stock ? C'MON MAN-- ARE U SERIOUS ??? Even got a micrometer involved--- WOW

Today a manufactured 2 L\ brackets by hand with 18gage steel, wish i had a hand break

How do you rate that bender. Looking at the same one for my projects at home. Cheers

One thing I think you should cover is bending to a drawing or dimension. Say you have a drawing to make a channel or cap rail. The distance between both inside legs needs to hug something or slip into something that's 6" wide. (inside width vs outside width) Show how to compensate for different gauge thickness, in say, 12 ga vs 18 ga sheet metal. I can't tell you how many parts I've had ruined by asking a shop helper, assistant or whatever try and bend sheet metal. When you ask them if they know how to use a brake and can make the part in the drawing.

I have an 18 x 80 inch piece of 14g. sheet metal I need to bend. Is there a way to do this if I don't have this machine? Also, what was the name of that tiny square you ude?

Thanks!!

Does the material grow like on a press break ?

thanks for sharing useful knowledge. in this video if the camera had been better positioned between 2:21 and 2.45 the viewer could have understood what is being attempted.

anyone else watching this in a manufacturing class or somethin?

Why aren't you using some kind of angle finder?

Hey ramsey that's a cute machinist square. Where did ya get it?

Where can I get that lil square from? Cant seem to find one that small

Sheet metal brake, press brake. What does brake mean? Is it just another word for machine.

magkano po,ang bending sheet,para po gutter

Can you hem on this machine?

Just broke my finger from dis machine lol

Saan po ang location,

Where you get that little mini square ?

Can't we just use a robot that runs on booze to bend all the stuff for us?

This department is the worst department all you do for 8 hours is bend shit just to hear the next department yell it dont match up to walk over to the build to see they built their frame wrong and added to many pop rivets and their angles don't match up who do you think get into trouble the guy who build the giant frame or the guy who cut the metal how he was told. I recommend the plexiglass or electric or paint department

i hate when i didnt think a bend out right....then there is no way to fix it BUT start with new metal PEEEACE

No speaking spanish, traduccion en español

Dangerous and incorrect information being dished out here. 😬👎