Here are a few pictures of my home made brake. I have a box and pan brake for thinner sheet metal but, I wanted something to bend heavier stuff. The hammer and vise workout was getting old. Here's what I came up with, it's very simple and works great. I don't know what the max capacity is yet but, it handled .130 with no problem at all I am fairly confident that it will bend 3/16" and mabe even 1/4" if it's not to wide. I used all scrap materials that I had around the house. Even if you had to buy the materials they would be failry cheap.

I made it to be used on my little hydraulic press but, you could make it to be used with a heavy hammer as well. It has a 12" wide working area and is 14" overall. The upper "die" is a piece of 1.5" solid bar stock and the lowers are 1.5" stainless angle iron (like I said I used what I had on hand), regular steel would work just fine and I would have probably gone a bit thicker to increase the capacity.

Excuse the mess in the background I have two cars in pieces.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v117/camaroman7d/IM001326.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v117/camaroman7d/IM001327.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v117/camaroman7d/IM001329.jpg

Dang Royce, that is so cool :thumbsup: some of you guys sure have a knack to making tools. :D

That's a sweet idea Royce, I might have to steel that one. I have always done the pound method and it gets old fast (maybe because I'm getting old fast...) I like the fact it is a really simple design and would be inexpensive if you had to buy everything. Cool!

On a side note, are those Billet specialties wheels on the nova? I am looking into new wheels for my car and those are pretty nice, I'm kind of torn between those, M/T drag lites and even the old school weld wheels, either way the full size steel rally wheels are cool and add to the sleeper look but weight a freaking ton. How do they compare weight wise to other wheels?

There's just no "OFF" position on that 'genius switch' of your's is there :thumbsup:
That looks like a cool way to get nice repeatable bracket bends :yes:
You are truely a great fabricator (metal, not those stories :D ) Royce.

btw - Pete (guy with the nice 65 truck) was asking about your cars - I'll send you a PM with one of his questions...

Dang Royce, that is so cool :thumbsup: some of you guys sure have a knack to making tools. :D

Thanks!

That's a sweet idea Royce, I might have to steel that one. I have always done the pound method and it gets old fast (maybe because I'm getting old fast...) I like the fact it is a really simple design and would be inexpensive if you had to buy everything. Cool!

On a side note, are those Billet specialties wheels on the nova? I am looking into new wheels for my car and those are pretty nice, I'm kind of torn between those, M/T drag lites and even the old school weld wheels, either way the full size steel rally wheels are cool and add to the sleeper look but weight a freaking ton. How do they compare weight wise to other wheels?

Feel free to steal the design that's why I posted it. I don't mind sharing ideas. If you need any measurements let me know.

Yes the wheels are Billet Specialties Street Lites. They are VERY light. I think the weights are listed on Summit Racing I don't have it handy. It is a very well built wheel, kind of simple but, that's what I was after. I would say they are as light or lighter than any of the other "street/drag wheels" I think my Weld Magnum front wheel may be a little lighter but, it also cost about twice as much. The rears are probably about the same weight.

There's just no "OFF" position on that 'genius switch' of your's is there :thumbsup:
That looks like a cool way to get nice repeatable bracket bends :yes:
You are truely a great fabricator (metal, not those stories :D ) Royce.

btw - Pete (guy with the nice 65 truck) was asking about your cars - I'll send you a PM with one of his questions...


Genuis? Now that's funny. My pea brain does run 24/7 I wake up in the middle of the night with ideas. I can't help it. I've had that problem since I was a little kid working on bikes.

Tell Pete I said hi and maybe this year I will actually have a car parked next to him at the shows.