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Pre-1990 press brake

altered

Aluminum
Joined
Apr 2, 2007
Location
Qc, Canada
It's been a while since I've began to look for press brake. I still have few questions.

I've been looking used 6ft or 8ft and I have about 20k to spend.
My shop do custom fabrication work, so no production run. I'm looking at quick setup.

So with that budget machine that I'm interested in are about 1986-1996.

I would like a machine with a cnc control that I can input the angle of the bend. Is this safe to buy a machine this old with a cnc control ? (like promecam or amada)
Is there any control who do angle input?

Last quick question if you had to choose between Euro vs american punch holder what would you get?

Thanks a lot

Frank
 
I can't speak for CNC equipment or the newer style tooling, but...We are a (mostly) custom manufacturer and have 3 mechanical Chicago D&K press brakes which my Great Grandfather bought new. They are from 10' up to 27' long, two made in the 50's, the other in the 60's. All in all, they still work great!
Whatever you end up doing...make sure the press brake you buy already has light curtain guarding and probably light curtain mute 1/4" above the material to top of stroke. You will likely need that in custom fabrication. If it's not already guarded with a decent system, expect to pay an extra $10,000+ for a nice flexible guarding system to keep you safe with OSHA and keep people's hands on their bodies.
Regarding setting angles, I know there are some newer machines (hydraulic metal folders are what I've looked into) they say can account for the thickness, type of material, and length of bend in order to get an accurate angle every time. I would doubt if a 90's press brake would have these sort of features, but possibly.
We set everything up for angles manually, which is really fairly fast once you get the hang of it(and learn to use the right test material). I do find that when I am air bending to a specific angle (using an acute punch/die), the angle can be slightly off between parts simply due to the differences in the metal tho. Something that a computer isn't likely to be able to account for.
We get all our metal up to 12ga in on coils and decoil ourselves. Most people would be amazed at the variations you can see in the steel as it's being decoiled.

Hope some of that is helpful.

-Phillip
 
BTW, our little 10' press brake is a 90ton Chicago D&K 810-L. We got ours in the 60's, but I think they still make that model today...or did until recently. Great little press brake. The ones I've seen recently go for 20,000 +/- 3000 depending on guarding/cnc back gauge, etc.
I can tell you from experience, they hold up well.

-phillip
 
Cincinnati made hydraulic machines that I ran new in the mid 80's which had angle bending features. Hurco had add on gaging that would do angle bending. I'm willing to bet that many hydraulic machines except Di Acro which had a part rotation hydraulic motor will do angle bending. It takes a bit of adjustment to get the angle. I saw only a demo of it when a machine came into the shop I once worked in. I never got to learn how to do the angle setup. Poduction shops often don 't want to give time to learn. That being said. I'm not a fan of cranking the ram up or down to change bend angles. Wastes time and errors can be destructive. I also don't like hitting a part repeatedly because the machine can't bend properly with one hit.
 
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If you are going to do many different setups then consider Wila tooling in the American style.

The cost is less than European, has almost as many options.

Uses bushbutton lock clips, real fast to swap.

All punches in the series are exactly the same height so stage bending is easy to setup, I just love the stuff.:cheers:
 
The real cost of used Press Brakes

Old used machines typically have poor repeatability and worse accuracy. Many electronic components are obsolete. Reliability is poor too. Your actual cost calculation should include:

Costs for extra setup time
Cost for extra trial blanks
Extra cost for finding/making obsolete components
Value of factory training
Value of factory warranty
Cost for extra down time

db
 
Hello! We actually have two in stock right now if you wanted to check them out. Or if you are still interested at all since this was quite a while back! Check out the press brakes we have in stock. Here are the two pre-1990 press brakes we currently have.


1989 Amada 125 Ton x 10ft Press Brake | Used Press Brake - Revelation Machinery

1980 HTC 200 Ton X 12' | Used Hydraulic Press Brake - Revelation Machinery

Spammer feeding on the dead carcass of a old thread from 2011...:ack2:
YouTube
 
From the for sale stickys:

An active member is one that participates in other parts of the forum by contributing to discusions. Asking and answering questions, etc.

If all you do is post for sale items you will be quickly removed. I allow a few ads without participating, but there is a limit. And posting ads without pictures, prices, capacitys,and minimal descriptions doesnt help your cause. Frankly it makes you look incompetant.
 








 
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