It's been a while since my last update.

I've spent some sporadic time in the garage doing miscellaneous small things, but nothing largely project related.

Today's event will be the slight documentation of my sheet metal brake made mostly out of 2x4s.  A sheet metal brake is a tool used to bend sheet-metal with strong attention to accuracy and fit/finish.  Sticking to my theme of "do everything out of 2x4s",  so I took that route.

The pictures should be self explanatory;

Here it is all complete. 

Essentially I took  two pieces of scrap 2"x8"x30" pine and 5 spare hinges.

I mortised out a pocket to recess the hinges into the wood.

I then cut a 4' long 1-1/8" leg Steel angle in several different lengths, then with precision, drilled holes in them that are equally spaced (3.75" on center) to create my "dies".

I then matched those holes through the 2"x8" pine, and installed Tee-Nuts on the bottom.

I created "thumb-bolts" by running wing-nuts down a 3" long bolt using my drill, which firmly seated the wing-nuts in placed, then trimmed them to fit.

I installed the hinges using wood glue in the screw holes so that they will firm up when dry, and drilled some LONG 3/4" holes in the near-side edge so I can use a screw driver or pry bar for leverage.

Voila, one cheap slightly more accurate then a mallet, sheet-metal brake.

 I like this shot, getting ready to bend up a piece of Steel Sheet.

Bending Bending Bending.

Here it is all loaded up with spare pieces ready to go.  I never know which combination of angles I will need, so I have different lengths.  Then, I just leave out the thumb screw as needed to let the sheet metal pass underneath the angle.

You can also see my double bent steel sheet.  Turned out it is VERY easy to hit 90degrees dead on, however, I wish the radius was tighter.

So far, it fits the bill perfectly.  I may have to get another angle to make a real long "die" to accept 24" wide pieces.

There should be more updates soon, as I'm about to take on the major project that is building my speaker infested fire place.

Thanks for listening, nixit fixit.