Happy Saturday Makers,
my name is Andres De La Garza, and I am an avid user of the metal shop at Asmbly. I am reaching out to the community to ask for help in sourcing materials for a press break I would like to build for the metal shop. As it stands, our shop is incapable of bending thick metals due to a lack of a press break tool heavy duty enough to withstand forces experienced during bending thicker metals (>1/4”). I though about buying the SWAG 20 TON Finger Brake Heavy Duty DIY Builder Kit for about $590, but, after working with the same model at another shop, taking notes of its simple design and its construction, I decided to reverse engineer the tool and price out the build. Here is CAD of the design I would like to make for Asmbly:
The holes through the top blocks are for screws that will pinch the Ram (thicker piece of steel that pushes bending dies into stock) to the finger retaining plate to hold bending dies in place.
To my surprise, It was not significantly cheaper to buy the raw materials myself to build it from scratch. The reason being that the two most crucial components (the Ram and the Bed) for this build are the most expensive to source.
The Ram of the SWAG 20 Ton press is made of 2”x1.25x24” 4140 steel (expensive in general as far as steel goes) and the Bed is made from 3/8” laser cut and bent mild steel sheet metal (expensive to source from SendCutSend, Oshcut, RMFG, etc.).
My next thought was to make the bed from steel U-channel which is cheap per foot, but the only way the metal suppliers sell the U-channel that I am wanting to use in my design is if I buy the entire 12ft stick. (which… yup, you guessed it, is expensive).
So, my most recent big idea is to ask the community if they have drop pieces of the following materials they would like to donate to the space so that I can build up the design. Here is a list of the materials I would need to build up my version of the the SWAG 20 Ton press:
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 | E | F | G | H | I | J |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item | Description | Vendor | Link to Vendor Site | Quantity | Price | Tax | Shipping | Total | Notes |
| Bed | Low carbon steel U-channel type C 3" wide x 1.596" high (3’ long) | Mcmastet-Carr | https://www.mcmaster.com/7779T57-7779T572/ | 1 | $47.06 | If anyone has drop piece that fits the description and would like to donate I would really appreciate it. | |||
| Angle Iron Die Rest | Angle steel 2"x2" 3/8" wall (2’ long) | Westbrook metals | 1 | $14.90 | If anyone has drop piece that fits the description and would like to donate I would really appreciate it. | ||||
| Guide Rails | Low carbon steel roc 7/8" diameter (2’ long) | Westbrook metals | 1 | $9.36 | If anyone has drop piece that fits the description and would like to donate I would really appreciate it. | ||||
| Guide Tubes | Low carbon steel tube 0.125" wall 1-1/4" OD (1’ long) | Westbrook metals | 1 | $9.79 | If anyone has drop piece that fits the description and would like to donate I would really appreciate it. | ||||
| Compression Springs | Compression Spring 3.5" Long, 1.219" OD, 0.969" ID | McMaster-Carr | McMaster-Carr | 2 | $17.63 | If anyone has drop piece that fits the description and would like to donate I would really appreciate it. | |||
| Ram | 4140 steel 2"x1.25" (2’ long) | McMaster-Carr | McMaster-Carr | 1 | $126.99 | If anyone has drop piece that fits the description and would like to donate I would really appreciate it. | |||
| Finger Compression Bar | 1/2 x 2 Carbon Steel Rectangle Bar A36 Hot Rolled (2’ long) | OnlineMetals.com | https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/carbon-steel-rectangle-bar-a36?q=%3Asize%3AMaterial%3ACarbon%2BSteel%3AShape%3ABar-Rectangle%3AAlloy%3AA36%3AThickness%3A0.5%2522%3AWidth%3A2%2522 | 1 | $23.55 | $3.00 | $12.86 | 39.41 | Can probably get this cheaper from Metal4U or Westbrook Metals |
Also, if you would like to make monetary donations to this project you can send them to my Venmo at @Andres-DeLaGarza-6. Any donors that would like to help with the build are more than welcome to contribute. If anyone would like to help build the design up, I would gladly except the help! Thanks guys and I hope to get this project built up so we can start doing some serious bending!
Also, just FYI, once the fiber laser is ready to use, anyone will be able to design and make their own custom bending dies for the press break. Take a look at the dies I’ve designed in the past and had SendCutSend make for me:
The dies are made from 1/2” laser cut A36 steel, stacked and then welded together and they work just fine!
-Andres
