Metal Bending Machine
 

Hey folks!

A friend of mine and I are thinking about making some off road parts (plates, rails, exos etc) and are looking for some machine suggestions. We can get a hold of a welder, grinder, cutters, drill press, CAD software etc but when it comes to a bender, those things seem way out of our price range. It's not like you can walk into Harbor Freight or Northern Tool and get a 20,000lb plate bender. There are industrail types available but I'd have to sell my house.

Does anyone know where you can buy a handyman version that would handle 3/16 steel?

While I'm at it, anyone have two cents they'd offer on what gear you'd need to do home projects like I mentioned above?

until you can afford a bending machine of somesort, you may have to just weld and grind more, but that sucks...

The hydraulics are going to be expensive no matter what, and large dies (and longer machines) (to do longer sections) will get much more expensive fast

I would look for something that has a capacity of around 12-36" enough to do small plates, and some skid hardware, along with pieces for bumpers.

Not sure the size pieces you need to bend, but I use a 24" press brake in my 20T press and it'll handle up to 3/8" steel:

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...atchallpartial

That's pretty cool, I didn't even think of the press brakes... how much is a press?

I think mine was about $200 at Harbor Freight.

nm, it says directly under what it fits on :)

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...Default-_-1459

You guys fricken ROCK. I didn't know Northern had this stuff????!!!!!!

A press and a brake is under 500 bucks new. I bet I could search EBay and Craigslist for a used model.

Hell yeah!

maybe make friends with someone at a muffler shop?