Bending Sheet Metal Into A 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.

Bending sheet metal into a box.

Use your bending leaf handles to slowly fold your sides and tabs to 90 degrees. Box bending can be rather tricky with sheet metal because of the geometry of a press brake. π 180 x b x ir k x mt bend allowance ba where b is the angle complementary to your desired bend angle 1 to 180 degrees mt is the thickness of the material ir is the inside radius and k is the k factor. Slide your metal piece underneath the teeth and line your marked line up with the edge of the teeth.

Lower the clamping bar handle down to clamp your metal into place. Use the corner notcher to cut out any right angles. Typically the upper beam or punch holder will get in the way of very deep boxes. 1 first you want to make an expanded template for your box out of cardboard paper etc.

When bending a 2 sided box with only a bottom front and back it is possible to remove a section of the holder and let the punch for a bridge. When bending with large returns there are a few tricks outside of just tooling selection. One way that i often work with sheet metal for automotive panels is to sandwich 2 4 s in a vise with the workpiece in the middle then work the metal with a rubber mallet. Return your bending leaf to neutral position and lift up your teeth to remove your bent metal.

You can find your bend allowance with the following formula. Sheet metal bending should be as perpendicular as possible to the direction of the metal fiber. Springback is defined as a material s natural tendency to return to its unbent position. This is caused by the tension between the material s expansion on the outside of the radius and the compression on the inside see figure 4.

Not everything requires a brake. There are lots of other ways to bend sheet metal especially if it s a smaller piece.