A quick build while I'm social distancing.

I bought some scrap metal yesterday so I could do a project I've wanted to do for some time.

Of course, they didn't have exactly what I wanted at the scrap yard, and I really didn't plan this out.

Anybody wanna take a stab at what I'm up to?

Shaking your arms to death?

Body rotisserie for the Fiat?

ProDarwin said:

Shaking your arms to death?

Right out of the gate. Shut it down.

Indy-Guy said:

Body rotisserie for the Fiat?

I actually built one for my Starlet project some years back. It is trapped at my Mom's some 3 hours away at the moment, but I'll retreive it when I can.

Cycle car?

Trebuchet!

Diy sheetmetal brake 

Rail gun for home defense against the soon to come zombies. 

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Diy sheetmetal brake 

Ding ding ding! Duster gets a prize. You can have your choice between a Mandy Patinkin CD, a year's supply of zucchini flavored hard candy, and a sharp stick in the eye.

I was supremely annoyed to find that 4' brakes cost about 5 bills, and maxed out at 22 ga., so I decided to build my own. Hard to exceed capacity if it doesn't have one.

What was that, 23 minutes?

Stick in the eye! 

Ive thought through building one myself a lot lately.....

We need a good title for a thread of coronavirus challenge builds / cleanup / organize my garage.

I would start one but i suck at communication and would get banned for how I stated it.

BTW Keep posting this, I have always wanted to make my own.

The pivot being a problem to keep the 2 surfaces moving correctly to bend the metal. I will be interested to see your "not thought through" solution!

I'm learning things.

Like I suck at machining. I bought this Logan lathe years ago for $50 bucks, and have barely touched it since. I have watched a bunch of this old tony, so maybe thought I'd struggle less with this than I did.

Ta da.

That's a lot of pictures for two blacksmith hinges I could have simply and cheaply bought online.

Thing is, it was an excellent learning experience with the lathe, and further proof that I need to read the literature I have on how to use them.  I'm a hack.

Indexable carbide tooling on a lathe is worth it.  And I love my quick-change tool-post too.

In reply to TVR Scott :

Duly noted. Someday I'll put in the time to not be a disgrace to that fine machine.

I left little nubs on my hinges so I could align them with the edge of the table and folding beam.

This was tricky. once tacked, I aligned them as best I could with a piece of angle spanning the length of the whatchamajigger. The following picture shows the angle moved away from the hinges, but you get the idea.

I used sawzall blades as shims between the two because 1. They were handy. 2.  I'm an idiot.

The Table (bottom piece of angle iron) was clamped to the folding beam, lots of clamps deployed, then it was welded to the hinges.Some more table was added.

Once that was handled, I pulled the lot off the vice and laid it on the floor.

, where it got feet, legs, and some bracing.

Then right side up for leveling and finish welding.

I was mildly disappointed to find it didn't move so great, but some PB blaster righted that (I assembled the hinges dry for fear of contaminating welds).

All that is left is the top jaw. I'd like to do something cantilevered, fancy and ergonomic, but the You tubes I've watched had good luck with a set up like this:

So that's what it'll be for me for now, and provided it works, likely forever. I'm beat. We'll pick it up again tomorrow.

Look for Gingery or Lindsey publishing books. Or find Machining Fundamentals. Great information.

A small sample of my collection. Yup I'm a nerd.

At a party one time Pyro revealed my bed time reading was technical manuals. I thought it was perfectly normal.

Do you have a book:  Make screeechy screaming noises with your lathe.  I could write it.  Took a course at a hacker lab near Sacramento which helped tremendously. 

Love this brake.  My problem is space.  With a large 1 car garage, I haven't got any to spare.   Everything in my small space has wheels on it, the table saw, 20 ton press, wire shelving, and the scissor lift came with wheels.  Does anyone have thoughts on a workbench mounted removable brake? 

My current project is running a 220v line in the garage for the welders and the lift, and some better lighting.  Started last night, hope to finish today.  

Stay healthy.

In reply to BrianC72gt :

This could be removably mounted to a bench. Basically, you just need 3 pieces-table, upper jaw, and folding beam. In my scenario, that's angle iron, angle iron, and angle iron.

Here's a decent video and compact design.

Sweet.  Thank you. 

Finishing up my wiring project, wrangling 10/3 BX through the confines of my garage ceiling, and down the firebreak wall between the house and garage.  I've got the wire in the breaker box, but I'm saving the spelunking into a hot box until the end.  (insert "that's what she said" here). 

And I can confirm that it definitely sucks to back up a tow dolly, at midnight, in a quiet cul de sac where the HOA forbids you to work on cars, even in your own garage. And I'm the VP of said HOA.  The S turn and the inclined driveway were an extra treat.  Did I mention the car doesn't run?  So I dropped an anchor in the garage floor with Hilti Rotary hammer drill (the morning before), and used a come along and a long pipe to dislodge project car from the tow dolly.  The not so lightly crashed project car, a 2011 Volvo C30 T5 w/ 6 speed manual is in the gararge before California gets serious about this whole lockdown.  I've got beer and powertools.  The UPS guy delivered some removable pulling pots just in case.

Sorry to threadjack.  Thanks for some great ideas.

In reply to BrianC72gt :

I don't consider it a thread jack at all. Get your ducks in a row and knock some stuff out.

So, I'm calling proto brake #1 finished.

I spent some time cleaning the upper jaw extra well. Then decided to short cut the last bit, and just use C-clamps to hold it in position. As I say, I'll likely revisit this, and will post here when I do, but for now, it is 100% more brake than I had 2 days ago. I'll report back on how it bends.

Oh yeah, I clamped some 14ga under the angle iron "feet" the C-clamp clamps to so I could ensure my work was held tight.I really like how some folks put springs and maybe T-bar bolts at each end, but in the absence of springs, I took a the easy way out.. Cheers.

I didn't know where else to post this, but it gave me a chuckle. I guess it is somewhat on board with our quarantining thing.

Test bend on an old piece of X1/9:

First, X1/9 metal is thick. Maybe 16 ga? I don't know, regardless, the corner could be sharper, and there was significant bowing in the upper jaw. This is not unexpected, but will obviously require a better upper jaw, or reinforce this one. Now I know why other hand brakes look like this:

In all honesty, I worked with a 26' brake in a metal roofing factory. I knew this would be an issue, just not how big. This thing is worth the 100 bucks I spent on scrap metal to build it, and will enable me to build the parts I need to build, so that's a win. A soft win, but a win none the less.

I think it looks pretty good.  Let the roofing company keep their sharp bends - that smooth radius is better for stressed car parts.

First two parts made. Headlight blanks for said Fiat.

That'll do pig.

Nice work.  I've found myself fabbing a bunch of bent metal parts for my 1800ES repairs; my "brake" currently consists of a large hunk of angle iron, several beefy clamps, a 400 pound steel workbench, a pair of those wide clampy pliers, and a 3 pound hammer.  Your setup is downright professional in comparison.