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(Text on screen): Using a Brake to Bend Steel, Kevin Caron, www.kevincaron.com
The Voice: Hey, Kevin. What are you doing?
Kevin Caron: Well, I'm going to make a box.
The Voice: A box?
Kevin Caron: Yeah. Just a little piece of sheet metal. This is a brake.
Have you ever used a brake?
The Voice: Nope.
Kevin Caron: Come here. I'll show you.
It's really kind of neat. It's got a jaw that opens up.
Don't put your finger in there!
So you can get the metal inside.
And then these fingers will come down and trap your metal in there and then it's just got a table that moves.
There's a little lip on the front that moves. And that's how you get your bend.
The Voice: So, what's the value of it? Why do you use that instead of just doing it by hand?
Kevin Caron: Well, I don't know about you, but my grip's not quite that strong. And to try and just bend this by hand. . .
Here; come here.
See, you've got a pretty nice 90-degree bend right there. Real smooth and real tiny little radius on it.
If I tried to do that by hand, it would wind up kind of lumpy. It would wind up crooked. It would wind up very uneven.
It wouldn't; it would look like you did it by hand rather than in a machine.
You can clamp in the vise, bend it over that way if your metal's standing up.
You could clamp it to your workbench, take a hammer, pound it down. If you had a nice, sharp edge on the edge of your workbench.
Or, you get a brake.
So, I can do this edge, and then I can come back and do that edge.
But then you think, now, whoa, wait a minute. I put this in here, these two bends that I; sides that I just bend up will hit here.
So, you take out one of the fingers.
You can kind of match it up to, well, this finger's about the right size of the work on this width.
So, I come in here and just . . .
play dentist and pull a couple of teeth.
And then just come back in and line it up again.
And then I've got a nice, even bend. Nice, straight corner.
It would help if I lined it up right where it came out the same length.
And then I could just come back and weld all the edges.
You could leave an extra tab on there so after you bend this up, you bend the tab over and rivet it, bolt it, weld it.
Whichever way you want to do it; however you wanted to make it.
But you think, well, OK, I can bend it up that way. Well, can I do anything else with it?
Sure.
Now you can come in here. Hang on . . .
And I can put a foot on it that way. So then I can come back . . .
and bend my edges back up. Bend my sides back up.
Now I've got a foot here where I could put a top on it. I could turn it over, or I could bolt it down, or weld it down.
Or I could have a box; have something; you know, put a piece of machinery on it or something on it.
It's a great, handy little tool. Saves a lot of time. Saves a lot of effort. It does nice, neat corners.
It's got a stop in the bottom where you can adjust it to whatever degree you want of a bend, so it's repeatable.
So you can sit here and make them all the same.
It's a great little tool. Handy thing to have.
See you next time.
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