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I always like seeing other people's ideas on home brewed or modified tools, it's interesting to see what kind of ideas other people come up with or unique tools they build to solve problems. So like the title says post up some pics of some improvements you've made to an existing tool, or of your scratch built tools, also a little back story on how your idea came about would be cool!
I'll start off. I've been wanting to build a sheetmetal bending brake for awhile. Then I thought to myself, if I bought a hydraulic press I could just build a press brake, then I would also be able to buy some dimple dies later on down the road to use with it. So we have a Harbor Freight store about 2hrs away, after reading some reviews I found a 20 ton press onsale that looked like it would work, with the 20% off coupon I could pick it up for $130ish! Long story short I got to Harbor freight, the press wasn't in stock, I'd have to come back in 2 days when their shipment arrived. Being the impatient guy I am and not wanting to make another 4 hr round trip later in the week, I decided to check CL. I found a lightly used 20 ton hydraulic press minutes away and decided to buy it instead.
After getting the press home and looking it over more closely I noticed that the press had alot of back & forth and side to side play. So I decided to make some better guides to tighten it up a bit. I ended up making some new guides out of some scrap peices of UHMW that I had. Before starting it had over a 1/4" of play front to back and side to side, now it has maybe a 1/32" side to side and none front to back, alot better now! Here's some pics.
^^^I cut the ends off the structure that the jack bolts to so that I could attach the uhmw guides ^^^welded a 1/4" thick steel plate inbetween the main frame stand so the new uhmw guides had a flat surface to ride against
^^^ also made this little "T" handle to make it easier to release the pressure without having to use the jack handle.
Here's a press brake I started building today, Its all just scrap metal I had laying around. Should be able to bend a 90° bend in a peice of sheetmetal up to 17-1/2" wide. need to finish welding it up and paint it. I'm going to build another one with a round pipe for the die so I can make curved bends too.
^^^heres a scrap peice of 16 gauge I made a couple practice bends with, works pretty good.
Good job on the customization! This has been my favorite. It's a wooden clothesline reel that I use for bending brake and fuel lines. I pictured it on my little bender/shear
Oh I see now, I was about to post and say I can't visualize how that works, then after starring at the picture for awhile I finally saw the wooden wheels, and then it all made sense, lol! Nice tool, is that something you made?
Nope, it was something I came across in an old shed. The fittings on the brake lines just fit thru there and I believe it's made of a hard wood so it should last forever.
I like that 20ton press you've got. I bought one from HF and bent the lower frame pressing a bearing for a one ton truck. They replaced it. But moving that thing back and forth was a PITA
That's a pretty slick little tool! Thats cool you were able to repurpose it for fuel/brake lines and it works so well, probably one of a kind!
Thats a good thing about Harbor Freight, at least they are good about refunds or replacing tools if they do fail.
When I got my press the bottom crossmember was in the wrong location so you couldn't move the press bed to the bottom 2 location holes. It was also out of square, narrower at the bottom by over a half inch! When I was making the uhmw guides I found out that the frame (that has the holes thru it for the adjustments for the press bed) was welded together out of square! I was very tempted to build a whole new frame out of rectangle tubing, but didn't feel like putting more money into it, lol. I think it will work well for what I need, mainly bending g sheetmetal, to use with dimple dies (eventually) and the occasional bearings and U joints when need be.
As soon as you make the fingers for your press and the dies you could probably sell those for a grand! This little bender i got from Eastwood only does 13" and the thickest guage i can use and still be in a decent tolerance is 16g. But the shear wont touch that. 18g is about the max for the shear and it cost $300. With your rig, youll be able to make new floor pans for our trucks. Im pretty sure from tunnel to rocker pinch weld is right around 17 1/2". Now that would be a business to start with a pretty high demand. Sorry, im goin on. Red Bull this late tends to do that to me.
As soon as you make the fingers for your press and the dies you could probably sell those for a grand! This little bender i got from Eastwood only does 13" and the thickest guage i can use and still be in a decent tolerance is 16g. But the shear wont touch that. 18g is about the max for the shear and it cost $300. With your rig, youll be able to make new floor pans for our trucks. Im pretty sure from tunnel to rocker pinch weld is right around 17 1/2". Now that would be a business to start with a pretty high demand. Sorry, im goin on. Red Bull this late tends to do that to me.
You really got me thinking... alot of possibilities. I just got a Woodward Fab beadroller, I'm planning to make a set of interior rear cargo side panels and doors for my 87' 4runner. My plastic ones are so brittle, the driverside is completely shot. I'll probably make them out of 18 or maybe 20ga the beadroller should stiffen the panels up quite a bit. Once I get some practice in I may try making some out of aluminum. I really need to make some patch panels for my passenger side rear quarter panel. A English wheel is next on my list, been looking at alot of diy builds lately. It's nice to bounce ideas around with someone, no worries, I'm a night owl, kinda amp up myself, to much Mt Dew, lol.
I had an idea for a quick and easy dimple die. Looked through my old sockets and found a 15/16" with a nice taper to it. Then I found a 1-1/8" socket that had a nice beveled edge on the inside, so the two sockets fit together pretty nicely. You could probably substitute a piece of pipe that's the right diameter, or maybe use a grinder to bevel or taper an old socket if you can'take find two that fit together very well.
◆EDIT◆ I went back and welded a bolt that goes up through the 1-1/8" socket, this helps keep it aligned and centered with the hole better.
Last edited by rustED; 05-04-2017 at 10:35 AM.
Reason: added pics
I took a peice of 1-5/8" OD tubing and welded it to a peice of flat plate. The plate had a hole drilled in the center with a nut welded to the backside. Then I threaded a bolt up through the center to keep everything centered when I put it in the hydraulic press. I stacked 3 or 4 flat washers inside the tubing to get the desired depth. I used a 1" socket to compress the sheetmetal.
04-04-2017, 05:46 PM
