Good news for scratch builders of metal airplanes - Home Depot rents bending brakes

[flybynightkarmarepair]

If you're building in aluminum from scratch, one of the most
intractable problems is the need for an 8 ft bending brake for most
designs. A good one, even used, is about $1000, and at least half that
many pounds, although there are alternatives that weigh less.
http://www.guttersupply.com/products.php?CategoryId=1277
There are various ways to do a pretty good job with cheaper tooling,
but I think Dave Thatcher, the designer of the neat CX-4 VW powered
single seater

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CX4/
http://thatchercx4.com/

has the answer to our prayers:

-- In , "Dave Thatcher" <thatchercx4@...> wrote:
>
> Gentlemen:
> The Home Depot here in Pensacola rents out an eight foot portable
> bending break that is used for on site bending of gutters.

This is a GREAT find. It makes me wonder if other tool rental places
have bending brakes.

Not every Home Depot has a full rental department. This link shows
the stores with Rental departments:
www.homedepot.com/cmc_upload/HDUS/EN_US/pc/common/superfeatures/Store_Loc.pdf

> It is ideal
> for bending the aileron ,elevator, rudder, and wing tip trailing edges.
> I rented it yesterday and made everything in about 5 hours.I even went
> ahead and made two sets of ailerons. It sits right up on your
> construction table. It rents for about $40.00 per day. The Home Depot
> part number for this device is 1012600340.
> This thing is going to make construction of the CX4 real easy and fast.
> The foot is not adjustable, so you will need to bend two 8 ft long
> strips of .020 about 2" wide to add to the foot. This will give you a
> nice radius on your bends.
> I have ask Herb to post pictures of the device in the photos section,
> so be on the lookout for them.
> Best regards,
> Dave Thatcher

A video of Dave making clean, long bends at Sun and Fun with very
little tooling was very inspirational to my efforts towards finishing
my Teenie Two derivative, and I've got a blog entry that covers that
technique,

http://users.lmi.net/~ryoung/2006/11/long-bends-for-scratch-builders-of.html

but a real brake is even better.

If you want to try your hand at building a bending brake, I like this
one the best of the passel of homebuilt brakes I've seen on the web.

http://www.ch601.org/tools/bendbrake/brakeplans.pdf

I have not had good luck getting local sheet metal/HVAC shops to do
this sort of work. They're set up to do sharp, zero radius bends in
steel. If they even KNOW what "setback" means, they're too busy to
mess with it.

[Lou]

I've got new for you, HD has been doing this for years now. Ace
Hardware, True Value also rents them. Not
to mention the local rental shop will also have one for about the same
price. The trick to the rental
is to have all the stuff you want to bend ready so you don't end up
renting the tool once a week
or month to keep the cost down.
Lou

[J.Kahn]

Lou wrote:
> I've got new for you, HD has been doing this for years now. Ace
> Hardware, True Value also rents them. Not
> to mention the local rental shop will also have one for about the same
> price. The trick to the rental
> is to have all the stuff you want to bend ready so you don't end up
> renting the tool once a week
> or month to keep the cost down.
> Lou
>
They claim to be able to bend .032 alum but I'm a bit doubtful it will
do a 10 foot bend of .032 2024-T3 without distortion. A lot of
airplanes use .040 for their bent spars and I'm even more doubtful of that..

Has anybody done a nice straight 10 foot long channel spar of .032 2024
using one of those gutter brakes?

John

[BobR]

Sort of like renting a tile saw. It only makes sense if you can use it
one day and get everything done. I am remodeling a bathroom and when I
considered that it would take several weekends of tile work to get the
job done, renting would have cost several times the cost of buying one
at Harbor Freight. Now, the only problem is what to do with it when I
am finished with BOTH bathrooms. Same would hold true with a metal
brake, renting only makes good economic sense if the total time can be
limited. If you know all the bends and are ready to do them all at one
time, its great. If not, you end up renting and returning, renting and
returning, and the cost ultimately is more.

Lou wrote:
> I've got new for you, HD has been doing this for years now. Ace
> Hardware, True Value also rents them. Not
> to mention the local rental shop will also have one for about the same
> price. The trick to the rental
> is to have all the stuff you want to bend ready so you don't end up
> renting the tool once a week
> or month to keep the cost down.
> Lou

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

"flybynightkarmarepair" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> If you're building in aluminum from scratch, one of the most
> intractable problems is the need for an 8 ft bending brake for most
> designs. A good one, even used, is about $1000, and at least half that
> many pounds, although there are alternatives that weigh less.
> http://www.guttersupply.com/products.php?CategoryId=1277
> There are various ways to do a pretty good job with cheaper tooling,
> but I think Dave Thatcher, the designer of the neat CX-4 VW powered
> single seater
>
<...> This is a GREAT find. It makes me wonder if other tool rental places
> have bending brakes.

If they rent construction related equipment, most likely they will have a
siding brake. I've rented them on more than one occasion (to hang
siding/trim).

<...>> The foot is not adjustable, so you will need to bend two 8 ft long
>> strips of .020 about 2" wide to add to the foot. This will give you a
>> nice radius on your bends.

This is an important bit of information - the standard radius on a siding
brake is real small.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

[flybynightkarmarepair]

Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe wrote:
> "flybynightkarmarepair" > wrote in message
> ups.com...
> > If you're building in aluminum from scratch, one of the most
> > intractable problems is the need for an 8 ft bending brake for most
> > designs. A good one, even used, is about $1000, and at least half that
> > many pounds, although there are alternatives that weigh less.
> > http://www.guttersupply.com/products.php?CategoryId=1277
> > There are various ways to do a pretty good job with cheaper tooling,
> > but I think Dave Thatcher, the designer of the neat CX-4 VW powered
> > single seater
> >
> <...> This is a GREAT find. It makes me wonder if other tool rental places
> > have bending brakes.
>
> If they rent construction related equipment, most likely they will have a
> siding brake. I've rented them on more than one occasion (to hang
> siding/trim).

Well, it turns out this is a REGIONAL phenomena. Here in Northern
California, houses are sheathed with Stucco, shingles, or wood siding.
You almost never see aluminum siding in this neck of the woods. Thus,
there seems to be no call in the rental market around here for the sort
of portable gutter or siding brake that seems to be common in Florida
;-(

I called every Home Depot Rental center within 50 miles, nothing. I
called every OTHER rental center within a smaller radius, nothing. The
counter guy (who is also the owner) of my favorite local rental outfit
said: "I've been in a lot of rental yards over the years, and I've
never seen one; we get questions about once a year, and that's not
enough demand to invest in that tool".

So I'm back at square one, me. Your Mileage May Vary.

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

"flybynightkarmarepair" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>
> Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe wrote:
<...>>
>> If they rent construction related equipment, most likely they will have a
>> siding brake. I've rented them on more than one occasion (to hang
>> siding/trim).
>
> Well, it turns out this is a REGIONAL phenomena. Here in Northern
> California, houses are sheathed with Stucco, shingles, or wood siding.
> You almost never see aluminum siding in this neck of the woods. Thus,
> there seems to be no call in the rental market around here for the sort
> of portable gutter or siding brake that seems to be common in Florida
> ;-(
>
> I called every Home Depot Rental center within 50 miles, nothing. I
> called every OTHER rental center within a smaller radius, nothing. The
> counter guy (who is also the owner) of my favorite local rental outfit
> said: "I've been in a lot of rental yards over the years, and I've
> never seen one; we get questions about once a year, and that's not
> enough demand to invest in that tool".
>

I guess you learn something every day.
I can think of 4 places to rent one within 5 miles of my house (near
Detroit). Plus two places that just sell siding / trim. Don't see much
Stucco though. :-)

(Most siding is vinyl now - but a lot of trim is still bent on the job)

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

[Lou]

Now that you mention it, I've never seen aluminum siding go on a
califonia
house during one of those house flipping shows. I sit there thinking
that these
people sure do pay alot for siding, but your right, no aluminum or
vinyl.
Lou