Harbor Freight tools thread.

Anyone have the little 18" brake? Thinking about picking one up for a project where straight bends in thin metal across an about 8" section is needed.. nothing too big Edit: read some more of the reviews, seems like it's a PITA and not having clamps included for the bending bar and the limited height makes it difficulty to clamp in place.. so unless someone has real high praise for it I'll probably pass and just use my vice, heat, and a hammer

 

I have one. Works ok for thinner sheet metal where you need a crisp bend. I use c-clamps but you still have to spread that load out a bit and use several clamps accross the material. For most things I go back to using my hydraulic press brake but the bends aren’t as sharp. I haven’t had too many “thin” projects lately so I haven’t used it in a while- I wouldn’t use it for anything 1/8” or thicker.

 

I have one as well, bolted it to a section of 1/4" angle and clamp that in a bench mounted vise.
11ga is way too thick, 18ga is pushing it. More of a pita than it's worth imo. Hammer and vise does a respectable job and is much quicker. 20ga and thinner and it does pretty good if you need the full 18" bend.

 

Thanks, I passed on it after looking at it in store. I'm making a skid plate for the Grom, @GHOST SHIP , out of 16ga and figure it'll be easy enough to do in the vise. 8" wide, about 22" overall length, and I need to curve the front up in a series of probably 15 degree bends and figure it might be hard to do that many in a row so closely spaced in the brake anyway.

I did pick up their 6 1/2" circular saw cutoff disc, excited to see how that goes. Cutting down a 24"x24" sheet down to the 8"x22", and figured I'd use the circular saw with a straight edge clamp to cut it to size. I was dreading having to do it with an angle grinder and try to keep it straight. For $3 it's worth trying. It was cheaper that way than buying smaller chunks and then I'll have scrap I can practice the welding on.

 

Man, I wish people like you lived closer to me. You can have all the scraps I accumulate every month.

End up giving it away to a shop to recycle; even the nearby school didn't want/need it for their welding program.

 

I wish you lived closer so I could just have you cut out this skid plate on your table I could draw this up in freaking tinkercad in five minutes and be ready to send for a cut and just have to bend it after, but instead it's going to take me probably a full day to do haha. I want to put slits through it to keep the cylinder head cooler and I'm DREADING having to hand cut those all by angle grinder or circular saw and try to keep them straight. Might look into what a dimple die setup would cost or maybe just drill a shitload of holes in it instead.

Edit: I also paid $41 for this 2'x2' sheet of 16ga but I can literally see the store from my house and saved me a 45 minute each way trip to a dedicated metal supplier

Edit 2: definitely not doing dimple dies, those are much more than I expected

 

OOF...

Less than $40 here for a 4' x 4' of 16 gauge, 15mins away

And it's funny you're doing a skid cause so am I; going to cut a prototype out of 16 gauge now before cutting the real thing in 1/4"

And yeah I'm surprised how much those dimple dies are; look cool for sure though!

 

I had one. Loaned it to a buddy who had a machine shop but he passed away and someone else went in and claimed it as theirs.
I drilled a hole on both ends of the clamping bar and base, welded a nut to the under side of the base and put bolts through to clamp the bar. My buddy was going to make it back brace for the clamping bar. Weld it on both ends and weld a couple nuts in the middle to run a bolt through to put tension on the middle.
It takes about 1.5" of use off, but makes it so I didn't have to use clamps. If I had space, I'd get the big one instead.

 

I’ve been lazy and have had only casters on the corners for the past year or so, I’ll have to check if it has sagged. I keep the air over hydraulic jack as well as the swag press plates and press brake on there so it’s got some weight on there all the time haha

 

Yeah my brake has been on my press too, but I only intended to use the two as such and never use the press alone.

Using it just now reminded me how awesome it is -



@spencermarkd I love 5 minute jobs







Too hot outside to mount it up; I cut it so I can mock up a rear mount to my frame so I can add additional holes or slots as needed.

 

Must be nice…

 

Blame this forum and my wife; receive too much damn support for my damn hobbies

 

I would skip the abrasive blade. They have too much deflection to be reliable on long cuts that need to be straight. I use a Diablo metal blade in my circular saw and it cuts 3/16” steel like butter.

Freud Diablo DO748F Diablo Steel Demon 7 1/4 Inch 48-Tooth Titanium Carbide TCG Ferrous Metal Cutting Circular Saw Blade w/ Perma Shield Non-Stick Coating and Laser Cut Stabilizing Vents

$33 Freud Diablo DO748F Diablo Steel Demon 7 1/4" 48-Tooth Titanium Carbide TCG Ferrous Metal Cutting Circular Saw Blade w/ Perma Shield Non-Stick Coating and Laser Cut Stabilizing Vents

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008WQ3B

A few bits of advice though:
be very careful with flying metal chips, so proper PPE.
Second, adjust the depth of the blade so it’s just shallow enough to go through the material. If you have the blade extended to full depth, the smooth inner circumference generates a lot of heat and could warp the material. Not to mention the screeching banshee noise it makes.

 

Thanks for the tip I have to go back to Pullman Building Supply and get slightly longer bolts for that panel I put on, so I'll see if they have a saw blade in the right size there, forgot to look the first time I was there today. My saw is only 6 1/2" and when I looked at HF they only had 7 1/4" blades in the metal variety.

 

That’s easy. Get a new saw. Haha. I use a cheap Skil saw that I think was $40 and has a laser sight built in. With the right saw blades they work like a champ.

 

Guess it went up in price a bit:

15-Amp 7-1/4-in Corded Circular Saw https://www.lowes.com/pd/SKIL-7-1-4-in-Corded-Circular-Saw-with-Steel-Shoe/1000184209

 

Found it in 6 1/2”

Also found a belt clip with a crazy strong magnet on it that I saw an instagram ad for and was really intrigued by

 

Diablo saw blades are legit, use them myself

 

I like their aluminum blade. Clean cuts.

 

Well, my Chicago Electric flux core got replaced a month ago after 10 years of service and lots of wire through it. New one lasted a month before it stopped feeding. Took it back and exchanged for another. Hopefully this one is going to last like my old one.