Parts for making up my own 8' bending brake. (Warning!! As of now the only good use of this brake has been as a ripping guide to cut sheets of aluminum. Haven't successfully bent anything to my satisfaction.)

Pivot hinge for brake. 1/2" steel strap with 1/2" bolt cut-off as hinge pin.

Hinge assembly in position at on end of brake. 2"x1/8" angle goes on table and 2"x3/16" pivots up.

Hinge ready for welding.

Strap to hold down the sheetmetal on bed of brake. Holes are drilled to screw the strap down to the 1/8" angle bed.

Brake attached to bench. 2"x1/4" angles at each end are welded on to keep bed from twisting on bench.

1/2"x2"x4' strap welded onto pivot angle to help prevent flexing. Came to find out that this is not beefy enough for bending .040" 2024 aluminum sheet. Two handles welded onto brake pivot.

Pivot prepared for arc welding. Pin holding it in position while welding. Notch is cut in the base half of hinge to allow it to brake over 90 degrees.

Another photo angle of hinge pivot.

Brake mounted to building table. 1/2" x 2" x8' flat peice of steel with 37 holes drilled in it and beveled on one edge to allow brake to go over 90 degrees is used to hold sheet down. Used wood screw going through 1'8" angle right into table top.

Checking the bend for stress fractures. Looks good. Trouble is the bend isn't sharp enough.

Bent the aft spar channel first. Looked like I had a usable part, so I went ahead and bent up a main spar channel.

Main channel bent. Really had to wrestle with this to get it bent right. Was pretty satisfied with this part but the more I looked at it the more I was leary in using it. Slight inconsistency in the bend radius across the span. Bolts and angle iron on bench were used to clamp the brake throughout the span to take up the bow in the brake.

Doggone thing doesn't look too bad. Trouble is their is a lot of work that gets attached too these channels. If I wasn't happy with it further down the road their would be no turning back and I would be stuck with a wing I wasn't happy with.

Sheet clamped into brake. Must put masking tape on sheet to prevent scratching. This made for very accurate cuts. A pain to measure up and allowing for the size of the 3-1/8" wide grinder shoe.

Made up a wooden fence guide and attached it to my disc grinder with a cut-off wheel. Used auto bondo to mold it to the grinder.

Bondo molded to grinder housing.

Hole drilled and countersunk for bolt to screw into handle hole.