Experience With Swag Press Brake For H F 20t Press?

I started taking the parts out of the box last night and was a little confused about something...

The "shoe" that they supply is simply a piece of angle iron. Anyone who's done any metal bending knows that in order to make a 90° bend, you have to go a few degrees past 90 to allow for spring-back. The nature of angle iron compounds the issues to a degree by having a bit of thicker webbing in the inner corner. From this, thin stock will never have a sharp bend.

I assumed the shoe would at least have a bit more than a 90° bend.

If any of you have one of these units, is this an issue? Can you bend a full 90°?

I know they sell an adjustable shoe that can bend sharper than 90, but I'd think the basic unit should at least be able to bend a solid right angle.

I might assemble this as instructed, but I'm thinking I'll need to build a drop-in shoe with a sharper and steeper angle.

Thanks in advance.

 

Who is selling this Swag Brake? is it a Harbor freight product?

 

They’re in you're home state.
Welcome to SWAG Off Road -

 

OK they never cleared that with me LOL. I think I had heard of them a while back but based on the prices I lost interest.

 

I got the of those this past Christmas from my Honey. I had the same question, and figured I would run the lower angle though the Bridgeport mill to tighten up the inside corner, and maybe even add an extra degree to the inside angle. All this before I "assemble" the press brake.
I decided I needed to re-wire power to the mill, ordered the supplies, etc. and simply haven't gotten to the project yet.
What did you think of the "flat rate" packaging that press brake arrived in? I feel sorry for the US Postal workers that have to handle those!
-Donny

 

I have one, and built. It’s been a while since I used it.

I recall 90 on 1/8” was no problem. I was replicating c channel for a cj5 frame.

If it’s an issue on the thicker stuff you could fix it.

 

You must've missed my post from the other day:
H F 20 Ton Shop Press Reviews?

Thanks for your input fellas. I'll eventually get it put together and give it a try.

 

This one.

20 TON Finger Brake Heavy Duty DIY Builder Kit

It sounds like the one you're referring to, but I'm not sure how it could bend even a 90 without modification. The fingers are cut at a just shy of 120°, but the angle of the shoe is only 90, not allowing for spring-back.

I'll be thrilled if it somehow makes a solid right angle, but just from a physics perspective, I'm not seeing how it can.

I'll certainly report back when I get time to throw it together and test it out.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I had my eye on that press brake a while ago it’ll be interesting to see how it works out for you, his portaband table seems legit too.

 

I have both the finger dies and the gooseneck system! They both have there limitations. But with that in mind, they both seem to work for me! Just need to use a little backyard ingenuity! Example that comes to mind. I wanted to build my own motor mounts from steel around the shop! I have a large pile 1/4" hot rolled plate. I made some templates and transfered these deminsions to my plasma. Cool so far! Its kinda of diamond shape. So I use the goose neck fingers to bend these bad boys! Yes I got my 90's but let's just say there was a lot of scrap prototypes. Now the press brake tool is quite capable, but there is a learning curve as with all new tools. The wings on these are fairly deep, so I welded several pieces of scrap angle iron together to compensate the length limitations! I'll post a pic of the aforementioned mounts later today! So I guess to sum it up! I really like these for what they are! Also thru trial and error I have used them with reasonable success. I also own several other swag products and are quite pleased with them. The press plates are GREAT! I just set up the the u turn tube bender digital read out system for my son. It seem like it should be a very good investment, when I finally start caging the CJ6. My son also purchased the plane of bend clamp system.

 

Here is a couple pics of the motor mounts! I think I am going try these in 3/16's and see how it comes out! These have been welded yet. I have trying to practice some, for once I dont want booger weld it together!

 

Second picture looks like you made some ford truck shock mounts.

 

I finally had time to assemble this thing.

Front:


Back:


They call for the "shoe" to be fully welded into the base. This warped the whole unit a little bit as the welds cooled, so I made a few hot lines across the bottom to flatten it back out. You can see the spots of discoloration across the bottom. As my cherry-red lines cooled, they pulled it back flat.



Here it is in the press:


I did a quick test-bend. My concerns seem valid. The tightest I could get this bend was 88 1/2°.



I'll have to make a drop-in shoe with about a 92° throat to make a true 90° bend.

Besides this issue, this is a very solid unit with well-machined parts. I'll get lots of use out of it.

 

Thank goodness being a aircraft structural mechanic, I have access to many machines at our hanger. Box and pan break, and cornice break in the back shop.