Bending Sheet Metal Into A Box

When working with sheet metal one particularly useful piece of equipment is the brake.

Bending sheet metal into a box.

Metal shops have brakes mounted at different angles with automated braking arms however it is possible to bend sheet metal at home without the use of a brake. Once all of the squares are cut out you ll be left with the four flaps. Bend the top edges over. Commonly used equipment include box and pan brakes brake presses and other specialized machine presses typical products that are made like this are boxes such as electrical enclosures and rectangular ductwork.

Insert the first edge into a bending brake. You ll be bending over the edges of these flaps to make smooth edges for the top of the box. I have a graph paper drawing in the pics below but its not for this box 2 trace your template on to your piece of sheet metal as pictured i suggest 20 22 gauge steel 3 cut your piece into the same shape as template. How to bend sheet metal without a brake in 4 different methods with minimal or homemade tools.

Bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations. A brake is a device that allows you to bend a piece of sheet metal at a particular angle. Box bending can be rather tricky with sheet metal because of the geometry of a press brake. This is done through the application of force on a workpiece.

1 first you want to make an expanded template for your box out of cardboard paper etc. Typically the upper beam or punch holder will get in the way of very deep boxes. Make sure that it is lined up with the line you measured earlier. This will create a lip.

When bending with large returns there are a few tricks outside of just tooling selection. Most frequently expensive sheet metal bending tools called brakes are used to bend sheet metal but you can also complete this task without one. Bending is a manufacturing process that produces a v shape u shape or channel shape along a straight axis in ductile materials most commonly sheet metal. The force must exceed the material s yield strength to achieve a plastic deformation.

Bend the edge 90. Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape.