Harbor Freight 30 inch bending brake review
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2016
- 30" Bending Brake on Amazon: amzn.to/2r51z3n
Quick review on the Central Machinery 30" bending brake from Harbor Freight.
I took this thing to the limit right away bending maximum metal thickness!
All in all, I found it's a pretty nice tool! 
Хобби
Thanks, I just purchased it this morning and I have a ton of ideas for scrap sheet metal shelving. 1st I’m in the middle of building a harbor freight clamp storage box out of a discarded 5’ pastry/bread cart with wheels. I was stuck on how to bend the sheet metal around the aluminum cart and was about to start with a wood brake but watched several RUclips videos and drove to the place I try to buy at least one item at a time which never occurs. Thanks again.
You're welcome! Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback!
Thanks for reviewing this. It definitely looks good for what I plan on doing. I think it did pretty well for that large piece of aluminum you did. That was certainly at the limit of the machine, but it did it, and that's what counts. I'll be working with thinner autobody steel so it should work well for me.
I have been looking at that for a while myself and almost bought it last week. I am building a tool box for my tractor and had to start over because I wasn't happy with the old hammer cold forge routine. My biggest hesitation is adding another tool I wouldn't use all that often but at that price I think I will spring for it. Thanks for the video.
Yeah, this is definitely one of those tools I wish I would have picked up a long time ago. I've done a lot of the hammer and vise cold forge bending routine myself and this tool makes quick work of it. If you remove the handles it breaks down into a small package, so it's pretty easy to tuck it away when you're not using it
Your video was amazingly helpful, i realised this bending brake will not suffice the 18 guage steel 30” long i need to bend. went out and bought the bigger version from HF and its amazing and perfect for me.
Glad it helped
Thanks for the review. Im trying to bend 30" pieces of 18ga and I'm getting a big bend radius. I'll try setting the pressing plate back a bit
Yeah, you've got to experiment with the pressing plate position to find the sweet spot. 18ga that's 30" wide may be right at the limit of what the machine is capable of. Good luck and thanks for commenting!
And always make sure to wear open toed sandals, shorts, no gloves, no eye protection... whenever working with sheets of metal or heavy metal working tools as professionals do.
Cool! I'll check out some of your videos for proper procedure and safety tips from a "PRO"!
especially when welding...🤣
no pro here
@@johnbritt3738 So what I'm hearing is you know how to weld and fabricate in a safe yet professional manner, yes?
Cool, I'll check out some of your videos as well and learn some things from you!
Surely you're more than a keyboard jockey?!?!
God the fact he wasn’t wearing any proper pants, shoes gloves and I’d assume any other form of good safety equipment makes a skilled tradesman like me cringe. Especially when you’ve seen some of the injuries I’ve seen over the years. I really hope he doesn’t learn the hard way.
Just what I needed to see
Thanks for this, very helpful to me as researching the same product. Just using for some around the house hobby and roofing material stuff so not as thick a gauge as your aluminum. The comments down below are also helpful so thanks guys. I have a super heavy welding table to use as a base and will get some more clamps when I buy the brake. Great stuff bud, thank again everyone
You're welcome! I like building a lot of my own tools, but this is one of those weird situations where you can buy this tool for way less, and for the right job, it's a really good tool!
Thanks for commenting, I appreciate it!
For the price its hard to beat this tool. I make aircraft parts with mine.
Walmart has a nice C clamp that has a red release button to hold the bending break down to a work surface or long piece of wood at least 10 " wide or better for leverage.
If you only use it sometimes I suggest spraying it with a rust proof inhibitor like the WD-40 Specialist kind. Use it on the bare metal areas. Good review!
Thanks! I'll look into those clamps. I appreciate you taking the time to leave feedback!
If you have a workshop, bandsaw, welder, and bench press, ginder, some hinges or tubes, I would seriously recommend building one yourself. You can make it very beafy, use serious steal profiles, reinforce, and do better clamping. This machine can be modified in various ways, but there are limits, and one of them are the pivot points / hinges.
I really do not understand why they didn't make this binder have a bit better hinges and bit longer arms, and drill some holes in the top piece for attaching nuts and bolts for claming without external clamps (that can slip and move the top piece). It would make it so much better.
Yes, I agree with you 100%. When I bought this bending brake, I was limited on space and money (right now I have no shop space!). For somebody in a similar situation with a small workshop space, it's nice to be able to easily stow away when you're not using it, and although it takes a little longer to set up, it does a great job on pieces less than 24" wide, and the price is right.
Once I'm in a garage or new shop space, modifying this one or building a bigger, stronger brake is on the list of things to do.
Thanks for your feedback!
Use a cutting wheel to cut the brake lines on the metal about half way through the metal. This will make your brakes far easier to bend.
I was going to build my own brake, but honestly the thickness of the metal I bend this would work fine mounted to my super heavy work bench. The steel to build one (although much stronger) is like triple the cost of just buying one of these. Pretty sure with a few mods you could make it pretty damn effective. I would imagine you deff want to mount it to a more stable bench when using it for anything longer....
What if you put a piece of 2x2 1/4" angle iron on top of the pressing plate with the vertical side near the break line.
Thanks for the video. I've been thinking of buying one for a project I'm working on. And is that an MF-TC portable workbench behind you? Because that's the project I'm on. Do you have a video for it?
You're welcome! That's my welding cart project in the background, but I suspect the build process would be similar to a portable workbench. I've got a 6 video series on it, and I used this bending brake for a few things. ruclips.net/p/PLyNdrtUfdbn2FIcu_DQvblK5zsrVyhN1u
1st time working with metal is tough . . . But I admire the effort.
Thanks!
I have the 12 inch, and 30 inch. only used the smaller one. I had no problems with 18 gage steel. just clamp it down good. no problem. that diamond plate may be thicker than you think, because of the diamond ridges, also not a flat plain.
Yeah, I thought it might be a struggle to bend the diamond plate, and it was! I think having it attached to something heavier or more stable would have helped, but it ultimately got the bends I wanted. Bang for the buck, I still like the tool.
Joey Mesa. yes I think there both good. saved me from buying a quarter panels for my car. I just used the small one to make a patch panel. turned out almost perfect.
mount it on something that doesnt move...then it would work fine
Yes, I agree, and that's definitely the plan when I get another garage shop set up.
You are using diamond tred sheet too that plays a big factor in bending the metal
Very helpful
Thx
You're welcome!
You have to allow for the metal thickness of the metal you are bending. 16 GA. and larger by moving the top leaf back for the metal thickness. I think that the aluminum you were bending was a little thick for the brake. The thickness looked like .063 diamond plate. It looked thicker than 16 ga. With a small brake like that from harbor freight.
Yes, I figured that out after some experimentation. Yes the aluminum was probably a little too thick for this tool, but I wanted to see what it was capable of, and I needed to bend the material. I would still recommend the brake to someone needing to bend smaller pieces. Nice little tool for the money.
@@JoeyMesa Nice review. Also, the diamonds in the plate add even greater strength to the sheet, so this brake definitely did okay for how hard you were pushing it. I need to straighten a slightly curved 28" long sheet of 0.10" aluminum and it looks like this tool will be adequate, just barely.
This tool would benefit from having a hydraulic ram (Item #36396) attached in the center bottom of the plate with an eye bolts on each that are welded to the plate and is moveable. As the ram extends upward, it would pivot.
Maybe. I'm not sure if the metal is robust enough to handle the extra force without bending.
Keep it back from the break line the thickness of the metal that you are breaking
Tips and tricks ,Run a line of torch heat on the corner before bending the aluminium goes soft like butter without cracking .
Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for sharing! You should wear something safer than Sandles.
You are right! Thanks for your feedback!
That Bender does great with 24 gauge and thinner 18 gauge Maybe 16 no way, we have a full size 8 ft brake that cannot even move 16 gauge galvanized... that's good for thin metal I think only 24 gauge 26 gauge 23 gauge is probably perfect for that little Bender in my opinion
Yeah, It bends wide thin gauge material pretty nice. It bends 16 gauge aluminum up to 8-10 wide pretty well, but anything wider gets challenging!
Do u think its gud for roofing flashing???
I have one. It bends 16ga with no problem. Got it for $44.00, can't beat it for the price, wish I would have bought it sooner.
I agree!! For the money, it's a great addition to any garage shop.
Do you think it will bend 18 gauge stainless?
I slotted my pressing plate and tap and die'd the bottom plate. Crank down on the hex bolts with a dedicated wrench and no more slippage or hoaky clamps.
Thanks! That's a really good tip!
Thanks for the review. Please don't take this the wrong way, but I noticed that you were strugling with the machine......why don't you bolt it down????? Just curious. Thanks again for the GREAT demonstration.
Yes, I'll definitely secure it to some thing more substantial if I try to bend something that large again. As it is right now, space is at a premium in my garage, so most of the things I'm using the brake for are pretty small and clamping it onto my little welding table works pretty well.
That allows me to tuck it away when not in use, but at some point, I'd like to build a permanent fixture that's bolted to the floor that the brake will bolt onto.
Thanks for the question and the feedback!
Where did you get your hard toe safety boots? Btw clamp down your work bench. Thanks for your review.
Touché
It would be a better design if you could bend in a downward fashion. Use body weight and less likelihood of material slipping back. If you can get your hands on a bend table, it will tell you the minimal radius for each type and gauge of metal. This would be the minimal offset needed from the hinge and where the bend/clamp location
That's a great idea on a small bender like this to go in a downward fashion! I'd like to build a bigger one in the future, but for now, I may experiment with the tool to reconfigure it. Thanks for the feedback and ideas!
Josh Leedle I can tell you have not done any sheet metal work. I was a tinner for 20 yrs in the sheet metal shop in the USAF Civil Engineers.
Dennis Jones good for you, I am a product designer and have designed large commercial CNC bending equipment. Some bend up some bend down. Not to mention several hundred metal enclosures for both medical and consumer products that have comprised the bulk of my 20 yr carrier. I did not just follow the control drawings I created them. I was making a suggestion on how to make a cheaply made home shop based piece of equipment more efficient. While I agree that down is not ideal, if he wants to maintain a mobile and light weight table it is the necessary trade off in the design. Funny thing is, my personal break in my garage bends downward and it has worked just fine building a 1930 model A roadster, 1986 transAm pro street, and now a sandrail....when I'm done with it, fold up the legs and it stores nicely.
Do you think it would bend 18 gauge stainless steel?
It depends on how wide a piece you're needing to bend, 24" + wide= you may struggle, 24"-12"= doable with some patience, less than 12" = piece of cake with this brake.
you have got some loud Cicada's or frogs outside!
Yeah, it's cicadas. It's like clockwork in Oklahoma, every mid summer the cicadas start up!
I'd dab a bit of oil on the hinge pins.
It bent it I'm impressed
Thanks!
I prefer 1/2” markers
Can't you stand on the other side and pull towards you?
Sure.
On small stuff, I'll stand to the side sometimes. It would be difficult to stand on the other side and pull if the workpiece is longer than 2ft or so though. Anything that's more than 2ft wide and/or pushing the thickness bending ability will be a struggle no matter how you do it I think.
Like welding table
Thank you!
The gap has to be the thickness of the metal... common rule on EVERY bender
Good to know. Thanks for the info!
Umm, no. Minimum should be 1.5T which is really tight. I'd say for 16 gauge aluminum, about 2-3x material thickness is OK. He ended up w/ .25 on .060 material (16 ga), so the setback ended being ~4T. I think maybe the diamond pattern had something to do with that. Also, tighter bends require more force.
working with metal with flip flops wow ive seen it all
Yeah, definitely not the smartest thing I've ever done!
I would put it on a heavier table or desk that won't move around. Looks a bit dangerous to me...
A Saturday and a 6pac ya can make a better one, I have the 18" model and it will not bend metal of any thickness
How thick was that aluminum?
16 gauge, which is the maximum recommended by the manufacturer. I think the diamond plate made it tougher to bend though.
Figures. I have some 12 gauge to do. Going to cost me a lot more to have it done.
You have to account for the thickness of the material you are bending. You can not clamp the holding bar up to the edge like you did the first time.
Can we say A duh huh? LMFAO
lol what a struggle
The struggle was real!! I'm pretty sure the diamond plate surface made the 16 gauge aluminum seem thicker, but having the brake mounted to my welding table in this particular situation wasn't great either. All in all though, I really dig this el cheapo tool.
hahahahahahah
Am I the only one who cringed when I saw him wearing sandals. I guess people don't like their toes.
Painful
The worst break ever.
you need boots, my friend