Questions about pan and box brake

To all you sheet metal folks, After looking for a couple months for a 24" pan and box brake made in America with no luck I bought one made in china. As is typical with many things made in china it is sort of a kit. The fingers are soft steel and the ends come to a sharp corner. Should these fingers be at least case hardened? And, is it advisable to put a radius, say .020 or so, on the ends which form the inside of the bend? It seems that too sharp a corner might cause cracking. The capacity of this brake is 20 gauge mild steel. Thank You, Eric R Snow

Reply to
Eric R Snow
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Eric,

Opinions/comments inserted below;

Hate to hear that, but I can understand the reason for buying cheap. :)

Probably wouldn't hurt, but with it only being able to handle 20 ga. mild steel(as you mention below) you should not be able to hurt them. Just be careful with a hammer on them, and don't try to bend round or square stock with it.

form the inside of the >bend? It seems that too sharp a corner might cause cracking.

Again, as long as you don't try to exceed the capacity of the machine you should not have a problem. You can cheat some by moving the top carriage back the thickness of the material you are working with, but this would probably only let you get down to 18 ga., maybe 16, but that would be pushing it. The worst you would do is roll the edge of the fingers, cracking would only be a problem with the likes of 6061 Alum.

Hope this helps, Jim C Roberts

Reply to
Jim C Roberts

Thanks for the answers Jim. The price though was not the problem. Just finding one for sale was. I even had to wait for the imported one. Since I will be bending mostly aluminum the fingers are gonna get that radius on the end. Cheers, Eric

Reply to
Eric R Snow

I assume you checked out the 36" from proformer...

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erie

Reply to
erie patsellis

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