Bending brushed stainless and not marring it

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Portable Welder

Cast Iron

Joined

Jan 9, 2015

Location

Milan, MI

• Jan 7, 2020

• #1

I'm bending 3/8" x 3 brushed stainless and am trying to keep die marks off of it, duct tape has worked on thin stainless, however the tonnage required to bend 3/8" is not working.... I guess I should have bought the urethane they sell ???

 

F

Fish On

Hot Rolled

Joined

Feb 23, 2014

Location

Foley, Alabama

• Jan 7, 2020

• #2

Portable Welder said:

I'm bending 3/8" x 3 brushed stainless and am trying to keep die marks off of it, duct tape has worked on thin stainless, however the tonnage required to bend 3/8" is not working.... I guess I should have bought the urethane they sell ???

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Urethane die film is not expensive (check ebay), and I use it about daily. I don't know how well it holds up on 3/8" stainless, but it works flawlessly on aluminum for me.

 

Rewt

Hot Rolled

Joined

Sep 17, 2015

Location

Cleveland

• Jan 7, 2020

• #3

NO-MAR PRESS BRAKE DIE FILM

 

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DDoug

Diamond

Joined

Oct 18, 2005

Location

NW Pa

• Jan 7, 2020

• #4

How about a simple Wal-Mart/dollar general plastic cutting board ?

 

P

Portable Welder

Cast Iron

Joined

Jan 9, 2015

Location

Milan, MI

• Jan 7, 2020

• #5

Great idea doug.

 

Bondo

Hot Rolled

Joined

May 14, 2011

Location

Bridgeton NJ

• Jan 7, 2020

• #6

I bend 1/8" ss with urethane all the time, never anything over 1/4 though.

What I do for holding it in place is to stick rods (all thread) through the holes in the base of the brake. I have a Cincinnati and there are 1" holes about every foot about a foot below the bottom die. Then run trash can sized rubber bands from the rod, over the die and urethane and back down the other side to the rod. The bands will bend with the die, just dont double them up.

I normally get about 50 bends out of a stick of urethane in long lengths before it curves so much that it keeps falling off.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

F

Fish On

Hot Rolled

Joined

Feb 23, 2014

Location

Foley, Alabama

• Jan 7, 2020

• #7

I use magnets to stick the urethane to the front and back of the die, but it does require fiddling with after a few bends. The rubber band trick is one I'll have to try.

For thin stuff like 1/8" aluminum, I'm getting thousands of bends per piece of urethane in shorter lengths (say 54" or less).

 

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metalpyro

Aluminum

Joined

Nov 10, 2017

Location

Sacramento

• Jan 7, 2020

• #8

I have resorted to using a "wrapper" made from some surplus 20ga 304 sheet with the pvc coating. This keeps the brake die from scarring your pre sanded part.

 

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memphisjed

Titanium

Joined

Jan 21, 2019

Location

Memphis

• Jan 8, 2020

• #9

rolla v. I have ghetto fab pivot dies for our piranha, use nicer (made by machinest - not rolla v) on fly presses. you can supper 77 some umhw on the tops for super clean bends. Also use way less tonnage to bend.

 

P

Portable Welder

Cast Iron

Joined

Jan 9, 2015

Location

Milan, MI

• Jan 8, 2020

• #10

I used a combination of thick paper against the brushed stainless with cutting board material on the die, I only get one bend per pc. of cutting board, all in all, it cost 13 cents per bend.
The paper in beds itself into the stainless, so I used warm to get the paper off the stainless.
Thanks for everyone who replied.

 

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Scruffy887

Titanium

Joined

Dec 17, 2012

Location

Se Ma USA

• Jan 8, 2020

• #11

I finish after. I do have and play around with the film. Got a big a$$ roll of the stuff. Also have some roll dies that make little on no markings at all. But $thousands per foot so I only have a few very small sections.

 

J

johfoster

Cast Iron

Joined

Dec 15, 2016

• Jan 9, 2020

• #12

Scruffy887 said:

I finish after.

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Same here. I do a good amount of stainless fabrication (architectural mostly), and no matter how hard you try to keep material clean there will always be touch up. Once you learn the techniques it is easy to match and touch up brushed finishes, and usually saves more time just knowing there will be touch up rather than painstakingly trying to prevent it. Once a part is ready it will get wrapped up right away to prevent further issues.

If you are doing lots of parts in production that is different, and probably easier to make set ups to avoid damage in the first place I would think. Isn't that the whole reason for using the roller dies, or are there other advantages from those too?

 

M

memphisjed

Titanium

Joined

Jan 21, 2019

Location

Memphis

• Jan 10, 2020

• #13

johfoster said:

Isn't that the whole reason for using the roller dies, or are there other advantages from those too?

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Less tonnage and more forgiving(more throw = less bend). Really once you use pivot dies you question why everyone doesn't. (I know, money... but even home brew pivot dies are better than v's)
I have a set here in the shop that the welders wont use, because you use v blocks to bend. Welders also do not like food touching.

 

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Scruffy887

Titanium

Joined

Dec 17, 2012

Location

Se Ma USA

• Jan 10, 2020

• #14

johfoster said:

roller dies, or are there other advantages from those too?

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They work well with making large radius bends if you pair the punch with the roll die. Die wraps the metal tightly around the radius with hardly a scratch.