Metal bending brake: assembly 2

[Dan]

Here are some more pictures of the assembly of our metal bending brake project. The first picture in this series, shows that the notch on the bed leaf has been completed. This should occur right after you complete the welding of the parts that is shown in the assembly 1 pictures . As you can see from the picture the part of the machine that I created in assembly 1 is going to be used as a jig for assembling the bending leaf assembly. After completeing the notch, I use 1/2" bolts to attach the bending leaf handle to the pivot point bracket. These bolts are only temporary clamps, they are not the final pivot point pins. What you cannot see very well from the picture are the washers that I am using as a spacer between the handle and the pivot point bracket. It is very important that these washers (spacers) are installed. If they are not installed weld shrinkage will make it so that the pivot point bracket and handle have to tight of a fit with one another. What I do is use a thick washer during the jigging process, and replace these with a thinner washer when I install the actual pivot point pin. This way there is some play so the pivot point move freely. You could just sand or file the thicker washers down some, I have access to the thinner washers though so I use them. Also, you could just remove the thick washers and not install anything, but this would give you about an 1/8" of side to side movement. This movement wouldn t effect the quality of your peice that you bend with this machine once it is completed.

Ok, here is the first picture in this series.

[Dan]

This next picture in this series, is showing you how I make sure that that the web of the 5" channel (bed leaf) and the shorter leg of the modified angle (bending leaf) are in the same plane with one another. All I did was use a 6" C clamp to clamp a peice of 3/16" X 4" flat bar to the web of the channel , and extended it far enough past so that I could use a vise grip C clamp to clamp the leg of the angle to the flat bar. Also, make sure the 5" leg of the angle iron is setting tight against the flange of the channel.

It is important to let you know that you might not be able to follow my exact procedure on this. Why I state this is because all of these structural materials have a certain tolerance that they are allowed to be out of square. For some reason I got lucky and my material was good and square. If your material is off (can only be slightly less then 90 degrees to work, nothing over 90 degrees) some the most important thing is that the flange of the channel and the 5" leg of the angle are tight with one another. You still want to make sure that the edge of the angle ( transition point from one leg to the other) is in the same plane as the web of the channel. In this scenario you would clamp the 5" leg of the angle to the flange of the channel. Still use the flat bar for lining up the web of the channel, and the short leg on the angle.

[Dan]

This next picture is a different view of the previous picture. What I m showing you with it is the locations were I tack weld before I remove the clamps so that I can weld the joints out. Before applying these tack welds, make sure that the surface of the tubing that you see in the picture is parallel to the surface of the 5" leg of the angle that you see in the picture. This measurement should be a 1/2".

[Dan]

The final picture in this series is a close up of one of the fillet welds that I ran to complete the attachment between the bending leaf (angle) and the bending leaf handle. Im wanting you to see that I ran a continious weld bead. The joint was welded on both sides this way. Welding was completed with the bolted joint connection (shown in previous picture) left in place, all other clamps were removed. After you complete the 2 welds on the front you can loosen the nuts and swing the bending leaf up so that you can weld the back side of the joint up. Before you start welding the back side make sure you retighten the nut and bolt clamp. Also, these welds are completed before the stiffeners are welded onto the 5" leg of the angle iron.

So you know as I stated in a previous post Im welding this up with my HH 175 . I welded these joints up using .030 E70S-6 and C25 shielding gas. My settings on the machine were 3 on volts and 60 on the wire speed.

[Guest]

Dan, I would like to see an isometric shot or two, for clarity. Great text book welding, Dan! Wrappin' the corners and fillin' the craters!