Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and

a few tricks
12

READERS

3 2 1 6 6 4
FRIDAY, 2 DECEMBER 2011

SEARCH THIS BLOG

Search

DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks
.....

CATEGORIES: Featured (14) Reviews / Interviews (10) AUDIO (8) PCB (7) Hacks (5) Arduino (3) CNC (3) Guide (3) Eagle (2) FAVORITE LINKS ablogtoread EEWeb Electrical Engineering Toolbox
http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

POPULAR POSTS Audio: Crystal cMoy Freeform Headphone Amp Updated Well the time has

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

EEVblog The Verge Engadget The Gaming Cyclist Wall St. Journal AppleTvBlogr Home Built Hifi Make Hackaday

come to pour the clear casting resin .I have sayIhave been putting this off for some time ,but it all tur... DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks ..... If you have ever been into electronics in any particular way the problem often arises at the end... Hack: Reverse engineer and re purpose an old Keyboard "The Matrix Reloaded" Updated 10/1/2012 (see the bottom of the article) A keyboard has its own processor and circuitry that gets the information from mo... Mystery Project update 2 "The Time Vampire" "ta da" another Headphone Amplifier/Pre-amp it took way too much time to

If you have ever been into electronics in any particular way the problem often arises at the end of a project the enclosure What the hell am i going to put all this in !

Some peoples standards are different to others and some are quite happy putting their projects in any type of box and believe me I've seen some things online verging from a pc in a cardboard box to amplifiers in cigar boxes. Now don't get me wrong this can be well implemented at times you only have to look at the Cmoy Mint Amps housed in an Altoids Tin to see a good implementation.

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

make. If you have been following the previous posts what you ... Review: Zalman ZMVE300 USB3 Virtual CD/DVD/BR USB Hard Drive Enclosure The Zalman ZM-VE300 \USB3 Zalman were kind enough to send a ZMVE300 USB3hard driveenclosurethe big brother of...

ABOUT ME

There are quite a few nice off the shelf commercial chassis's available such as Hammond Mfg extruded aluminium series but they are very height limited you aren't going to fit any type of large transformer in there .There are many others some from EBay, some of the Chinese chassis are great but factor in shipping and tax and your soon racking up 100 + only to have to modify it and this is where my journey begins.......

For many years i have wanted to make a my own PC case but this involved bending metal and i have to say i wont bother starting a project if the end result doesn't look professional . You have only to look at Cygnus X1 ,a work of bending art.
Rupert Hirst View my complete profile FILES Project Design Files

BLOG ARCHIVE 2012 (25) 2011 (15) December (8) Electronics: Potentiometer Shaft Jig.... a nice t... The Christmas bauble for GEEKS ! Mystery Project update 2 "The Time Vampire" Mystery Project Update 1 Tip: Hardrive prices got you all in a spin? ..Save ... Hacks: Dettol No-Touch Dispenser recession buster ... Electronics: Mystery Project DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy
http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

way with a hom... November (5) October (1) September (1) 2010 (1) "PROJECTS ARE THIRSTY WORK, PLEASE SUPPORT THE BLOG BY DONATING A CUPPA"

Earlier this year i decided to start a new D.I.Y Audio project, i wanted a small yet powerful amplifier for the PC to run a pair of Q Acoustics 1010i bookshelf speakers. I decided a Gainclone was the way to go and decided on a LM3875 Classic kit from Audiosector .Peter is a great force in the DIY Audio community and is a master at making simple yet beautiful chassiss as well as the bits inside :)

Some of Peters genius artwork ..... what your looking at is a 2x68watt amplifier!

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

So the kit was built and the prototype chassis was made to house and tweak the layout after a week or so i had the layout down and i knew the dimensions of the chassis that i required .I already had decided that i would need to make my own chassis and the prospect of bending aluminium arose yet again.

The testbed prototype ready to be re'housed..........

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

One thing i knew was that i wanted perfect bends and bending 3mm aluminium wasn't going to be easy not only that but actually getting precise bends and keeping everything square would also be a challenge you have to factor in how much material the bend will use and where it will end up. I thought about this for a few days i even looked around for a brake press but they were either too expensive or feeble even some of the larger ones could only bend thin gauge metals .

I have a bit of a motto if you cant buy it or borrow it then make it! and this is when i thought i would make my own bender .I rang my friend Mick as i remembered he had some angle iron floating around but as it turned out he had used it .As i couldn't wait and had a look around for materials i had lying around when i noticed quite a bit of 38mm bamboo worktop off cuts ,so i decided this might just fit the bill as i wasn't bending steel the impact on the edge of the backstop would be a lot less

Heres the result of an afternoons work..........

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

I'm not going to get into the construction of the bender as its pretty self explanatory and the lengths will differ depending on what the size of sheet you need to bend. One of the most important parts are the hinges these will take allot of force during the bend and its pretty critical that there is as little play as possible as this will influence the quality and tightness of the bend .I used some 4 inch heavy duty stainless hinges because they were the best i had around .One of the bonuses of the 38mm plywood was the fact that the hinges could be screwed in place i didn't need to bolt them through the base and swing arm. The other bit of advice is to run the face edge of the backstop through a table saw i used a angle of 5 Degrees this is because when you bend the metal you usually want 90 Degrees and when you hit 90 the metal will want to spring back a little so the idea by adding an angle 5 degrees past 90 is so that you can bend past 90 to allow for the spring back so when you release the handle the bent angle will spring back to 90 not 85. (This isnt set in stone you can have less of an angle or more) The two M10 bolts in the top are to clamp the sheet between the backstop and the base, The backstops bolt holes have a slot cut in them to allow the backstop to be slid back to allow for the thickness of the material to be bend .

See how the face of the backstop slopes backward slightly..........

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

Time to bend or nearly. So we have the bender but we aren't finished as there is another trick to getting the perfect bend and this involves making a score or cut line on the sheet where you want the bend to start for this you will need a table saw with a blade with as many Carbide teeth as you possible and preferably sharp :).Aluminium cuts surprisingly easy with a decent table saw especially when you use a blade designed for cutting non-ferrous metals ,but remember if it grabs it wont be as forgiving as wood to you or the saw.

Make sure you take precautions with guards and safety glasses e.t.c and of cause i take no responsibility if it goes all horribly wrong it is up to you to gauge your ability and the risks involved when following these methods.The guards were removed from the photos for clarity!!
Here we can see that the blade it set at about 1/3rd of the thickness of aluminium this figure will depend on the thickness of the material to be bent.

Here's a piece of aluminium 3mm thick. (Its a good idea is to practice on some scrap first..........

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

So we have the depth set on the table saw and the lines marked on the material to bend..........

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

Once youre happy with the depth now we set the saw table fence to the first cut. (A little note here using this method of cutting the line removing a third/half of the material will give perfect 90 degree sharp inside corner) if we just bent using the bender you would end up with a radius on the inside as well the outside.

Here you can see the channel made by the Saw blade..........

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

(A tip here is if you are making a U shaped cover/lid for something you would have cut 2 lines in the sheet so you would have a side/middle or top/side sections, if you want the middle(top) section to keep the same width as the marks make the cut on the other side of the marks towards the sides that way when you bend it you will maintain this measurement and any excess can be cut off the side later by placing the bent piece on its side in the table Saw.

Here i rotated the sheet over to duplicate the other side..........

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

Time to Bend the sheet into something useful..........

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

Here you can see that the backstop has been slid back and the bolts tightened to allow for the thickness of the material. The edge of the cut is exactly lined up with the gap between the edge of the backstop base and the swinging side. The other cut edge is directly in line with the bottom of the backstop.

When we start to fold the whole cut line will act as a weak point and the bend will follow this path exactly till each cut edge meet together producing a smooth square bend.

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

If you didnt quite get 90 degrees try push the piece slightly passed 90 to allow for spring back .Now i just turned the piece round in the backstop re-clamped and bent again..........

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

We now have a Chassis lid with perfect bends with a nice radius with perfect 90 degree sharp internal corners!..........

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

The Amplifier enclosure lid is ready !..........

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

This was a more complicated 4 part bend for the Amplifier enclosure base..........

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

Here are all the bent enclosure parts ready for assembly of the Amplifier ( More pictures of the fully assembled amplifier http://www.homebuilthifi.com/project/51 )

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

Few Extra Tips and Bits

Get a good long stainless steel ruler preferably with 0.5mm increments for precise measurements and straight marking

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

Get a Sliding Engineers square or Combination Square you will use this constantly from everything from checking for square lines, transferring lines also checking depths and marking centres for drill holes

Get a pair of Digital Calipers you will never look back !

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

The finest permanent marker such as Pentel NMF50 (my favourite) or the Sharpie Ultra Fine will draw 0.5mm lines on anything ,or use a craft knife to mark soft metals such as aluminium.

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

The Finer the marks the more accurate your bends and cuts will be .A 2mm line with mean you could be out by 2mm off square or that hole you drilled just wandered off 2mm doesnt sound like a lot but when your drilling four holes to mate up to another piece it wont !

Aluminium Grades 5251 H22: (Medium strength alloy, work hardens rapidly. Resistant to marine atmosphere 1050A: (Malleable. Good corrosion resistance.) 5083"O": (Readily welded, suitable for use in cryogenic applications e.g. storage & transportation of liquid gases & in
http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

shipbuilding. Used in general engineering for tooling, jigs & fixtures.) 6082-T6: (The recommended alloy for structural purposes with good strength & general Corrosion resistance. Used for vehicles, bridges & cranes, general engineering & tooling plates. Not recommended for folding/forming)

Have Fun...

I hope a few readers found the article useful.

Posted by Rupert Hirst at 12:00 AM Labels: Aluminium bending, DIY, Featured, Guide

+12 Recommend this on Google

22 comments:
Obaid 7 December 2011 17:01:00 GMT Awesome! Absolutely superb! Thank you so much for sharing :) Reply

Josh 7 December 2011 17:28:00 GMT Very useful, thanks! Hackaday sent me :) Reply

bob 7 December 2011 20:02:00 GMT just what i was looking for, thanks Reply

EATYone 7 December 2011 20:19:00 GMT MAGNIFIQUE! Thanks for sharing! Reply

shrimants 7 December 2011 21:44:00 GMT Hey man. Fellow audiophile here. It would be awesome if you did more reviews and how-tos of various kits
http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

and audio stuff. Great job on this amp. Reply

Anonymous 7 December 2011 21:52:00 GMT Absolutely awesome ! you rock man Reply

Pharmacist 7 December 2011 23:01:00 GMT Inspirational. Thanks for the effort. Reply

Spork 7 December 2011 23:37:00 GMT That is awesome, I'll build one this weekend! ~HaD sent me as well. Reply

smcnay 7 December 2011 23:50:00 GMT Hi, I am impressed. Also, quite impressed with your Amp build. Is there anyway you might be able to pass along your build specs? Reply

Anonymous 8 December 2011 00:09:00 GMT Great job Reply

Anonymous 8 December 2011 02:11:00 GMT This is great, I will keep your tutorial for sure. Thanx a lot. Reply

Bill 8 December 2011 04:27:00 GMT Thanks for the nice tutorial. Here's an idea to try on your next project. Would tilting the saw blade 45 give you a more seamless bend? This way, you would take out a wedge instead of a channel. Opps, Illustration below works better with a monospace font. /w/
http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

/a/ \s/ =====\ /===== \ =====\/====== } Aluminium -------------- / Although you might have to play around with it to get the depth and horizontal positioning right. Thanks, - Bill Reply

Rupert Hirst - Koogar 8 December 2011 08:46:00 GMT Hi Bill Yes a 45+ side cut would give a better bend and its the right way to do it. My way is a bit of a hack plus it gave me a larger radius on the outside corner which looks nice. Also you need an angle slightly more than 45 to allow for an over bend so when you bend the line it will spring back to 90, if you have to force it you end up distorting the flat sides. I was hoping my DIY CNC machine would have been finished by now this would enable me to cut the entire piece flat in one go including the holes with a V groove for the bend lines using a V Bit. Good idea though will have to try it next time :). Thanks Rupert Reply

Deadly Derek 8 December 2011 10:33:00 GMT Rupert Any alloy bend that has to take any load must not be cut, it will crack & fracture. Thicker sheets or harder grades need to be heat-treated i.e. annealed, before working it. Deadly Derek Reply

Anonymous 12 December 2011 21:34:00 GMT @Deadly Derek mmmmm, I think you missed the point about it being a non load-bearing application, unless you count the downward force of gravity on an external case as "load-bearing" :) But thanks, both, for your info!
http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

Reply

Rupert Hirst @Deadly Derek

24 December 2011 11:19:00 GMT

You are correct in a commercial application etc but that's the kind of comment that stops people from trying things such as this. All aluminium will crack if it is over stressed in any situation cut or not cut and it is up to you to decide the stresses involved. This is an inanimate object with no loading as is most DIY project enclosures.At no point was i suggesting you could make a motorbike side car etc from this method at which point you comment is totally valid :) Reply

Julio 1 January 2012 22:11:00 GMT I came to this post looking for information on metal bending for making ham radio enclosures. I don't think my brain has ever learned so much in 30 seconds. Thank you! By the way, those are some beautiful enclosures, you are an artist my friend. Julio Jimenez KK4EQP @julio_a_jimenez Reply

Anonymous 4 January 2012 04:16:00 GMT Would you please tell us which saw blade and speed was used to make scraps on the aluminium. I want to use a mitter saw instead of a saw table. Thanks Aldo Reply

Jordi555 27 January 2012 21:23:00 GMT You have some skills there fella, keep up the good work and keep on sharing. Thanks for all your tips Reply

Gkon Electricals & Electronics Pvt. Ltd. 1 February 2012 06:57:00 GMT Hi there. Nice blog. You have shared useful information. Keep up the good work! This blog is really interesting and gives good details. Switchgears, Aluminium cable. Reply

Gkon Electricals & Electronics Pvt. Ltd. 18 April 2012 07:09:00 BST
http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

Hello, I love reading through your blog, I wanted to leave a little comment to support you and wish you a good continuation. Wish you best of luck for all your best efforts. aluminium cable manufacturers, aluminium cable manufacturers in India. Reply

Anonymous 1 August 2012 17:42:00 BST awesome....i am really impressed......great work... Reply

Comment as:
Publish Preview

Select profile... Select profile...

Newer Post Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Home

Older Post

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]

Run Away Brainz: DIY: How to bend aluminium the easy way with a home made brake and a few tricks

Electronic/Mechanical Design by Rupert S. Hirst is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at runawaybrainz.blogspot.co.uk. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/.

Rupert Hirst 2011. Simple template. Powered by Blogger.

http://runawaybrainz.blogspot.tw/2011/11/diy-how-to-bend-aluminium-easy-way-with.html[2012/12/25 10:39:08]