69 - Bench Top Storage System, страница 26
Bending Press With just a few quick turns, this press can bend metal rods ^ an d bars in to perfect, In the past, whenever I needed to make an angled bend in a piece of metal, I would clamp the metal vertically between the jaws of a machinist's vise and whack it repeatedly with a hammer. Although this method works in a pinch, it's not the easiest (or most elegant) way to bend metal. So to "refine" the process, we came up with the bending press you see in the photo above. Now the idea of a bending press isn't new. Factories have been using hydraulically-operated presses to bend metal for years. Essentially, the press squeezes the metal between two specially-formed jaws to create the desired bend. But the challenge here was to come up with a press for use in a home shop — one without the hydraulics. The answer actually turned out to be fairly simple. Instead of hydraulic pistons, we just used screwthreads. And for the jaws, we used angle iron and pipe. The bending press uses a twin-screw mechanism to bend the metal. This slow, steady pressure gives you more control and accuracy. Base - To build the bending press, you can start with the base. As you can see in the photo above, it's a piece of 3/t" plywood that allows you 26 ShopNotes No. 69 |
