Thread: 3-in-1 Sheet Metal Machines

Haven't used or looked at these items but the following points come to mind:

Capacity 1mm is going to be fairly limiting, and applies to mild steel or ali only, would probably not be happy with SS sheet beyond 0.4 should you wish to go there later.

Bending tooling appears to 1 continuous piece, rather than a set of various length components that can make up to any size within the units length range. This means that to make a tray, you can only bend the two sides up. With variable tooling, you can cut the material, notch the corners, and fold both sides and both ends so that only need to weld the corner joint to seal the tray. With one piece tooling, you need to fab and join the complete end sets into the base and tray, so more potential for leaks and distortion.

Unless you are planning on working with very small scale projects, the 300 wide unit would be very limiting in what it can do. For example, all material would need to be sourced in <300mm widths to fit into the machine for guillotining, so you would probably have to pay to have it broken down to that size at point of purchase. In that case it might be better to have it cut to size anyway.

Just some thoughts about the unit for you to consider.

I have one of these at 750mm wide that I have used for some years. Capacity for cutting is limited to around 1.2mm, but as I am using for patch panels in to car rusty panels it is rare to be working in anything over 0.8mm.
I see from the description you attached that the Forbes unit does have removable sections from the bender to allow for corners so I would not be worried about that feature. Barry 240

Before you rush in and buy one ,a heads up for you.

We had 2 of these same units at the high school where I last taught.

The guillotine section in our case was a pain in #### to to keep adjusted.

If the clearances are not kept adjusted spot on,the guillotine section becomes the folder,where the sheet jams between the two blades.

In the end I refused to let the kids use them as the time spent in unjamming the blades was several times of what was supposed to be saved by having the dam things in the shop.

Put the money towards building a pan folder as per the sticky on these pages.
Its ten times as handy IMHO.

Grahame

I feel compelled to say that choosing a Chinese anything for a school Workshop would be about the most inappropriate thing you could do. It is a very long time since I was at Trade School but I remember clearly the days we downed tools to properly clean and adjust tools that had been butchered by the unskilled and uncaring.
It is also pretty clear from reading various Forums that anyone who buys Chinese machines is inevitably faced with "detailing" and fine tuning just to get things working nicely, but I also feel that most people are happy to live with this, as they would never be able to justify the proper machine from the US. Barry240

I have the smaller one of the two mentioned. I purchased it specifically to make aluminium covers and have never tried to cut or fold steel in it. I have cut and folded up to 1.8mm alum sheet with it but that would be about the limit. Most of the stuff I do is 1.2mm.

I have never used the rollers so I cannot comment on that.

It does have fingers that are adjustable so making boxes is fine provided you don't exceed the height restriction.

You need to spend some time setting it up, i.e stripping it down first to clean it and then to align everything. The instructions are no real help so it is really trial and error to get it running correctly but worth the effort.

For what I need it for and for what it does it is fine. 300mm width is limiting and if you have the space the larger unit would be better.

For me this machine has performed to my expectations and was worth the cost.

Warren

I haven't got one of these machines, but I recently bought one of H&F's 600mm panbrakes. The one in the showroom was good, but the one I finished up with at home was anything but, poorly assembled and way out of alignment. It works well now but it took me a lot of stuffing about to set it up properly. I should probably have sent it back in the first place. BEWARE!