MWF FEED
25th January 2019, 12:10 PM
At the moment its just too hot to do too much in the shed even with evaporative cooling (it knocks the edge off the heat but you wouldn't call it "cool")
Sheet Metal Folder Up Grade. I made a basic folder some years ago mainly to restore a WW II Jeep Trailer. Its the Australian type with angular mudguards. I had to make the end walls of the trailer because during its life the originals were cut away and 2 fold down "doors" were installed front and back. The original sides had a roll formed in them along the top edges. My brother came across a design of a folder that showed how to make a folder that could roll this top edge using a ¾" pipe as the former. It took me a few weekends to make the folder but only 10 minutes to roll the edges for the trailer.
Since them I have made a few sheet metal jobs using the folder but its a little cumbersome to clamp the sheet if you are making a lot of folds. Also I wanted to adapt this set up to use fingers so I could make boxes and the like. I have used a John Heine 8' folder in a workshop years ago. With the John Heine folder you could make a safety edge easily and quickly by folding to about 135° lift the top former, turn the folded metal around then use the top former to flatten the 135° edge.
So I have been "fiddling" around trying to make a better clamp for holding the sheet in the folder. My problem is that I just can't come up with a way to be able to lift the top former say 50 mm high to allow for folded flanges and also have a fine tune for differing thicknesses of sheet metal.
Does someone have a good drawing of a clamping mechanism that I could get to my goal?
Read the full thread at metalworkforums.com... (http://metalworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=202858&goto=newpost)
Sheet Metal Folder Up Grade. I made a basic folder some years ago mainly to restore a WW II Jeep Trailer. Its the Australian type with angular mudguards. I had to make the end walls of the trailer because during its life the originals were cut away and 2 fold down "doors" were installed front and back. The original sides had a roll formed in them along the top edges. My brother came across a design of a folder that showed how to make a folder that could roll this top edge using a ¾" pipe as the former. It took me a few weekends to make the folder but only 10 minutes to roll the edges for the trailer.
Since them I have made a few sheet metal jobs using the folder but its a little cumbersome to clamp the sheet if you are making a lot of folds. Also I wanted to adapt this set up to use fingers so I could make boxes and the like. I have used a John Heine 8' folder in a workshop years ago. With the John Heine folder you could make a safety edge easily and quickly by folding to about 135° lift the top former, turn the folded metal around then use the top former to flatten the 135° edge.
So I have been "fiddling" around trying to make a better clamp for holding the sheet in the folder. My problem is that I just can't come up with a way to be able to lift the top former say 50 mm high to allow for folded flanges and also have a fine tune for differing thicknesses of sheet metal.
Does someone have a good drawing of a clamping mechanism that I could get to my goal?
Read the full thread at metalworkforums.com... (http://metalworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=202858&goto=newpost)