I know everyone here would rather discuss who's the most cantankerous, who remembers walking to school in the snow, up hill both ways, "should I buy a tan glock or a black glock?". "Is juicy smollet an obama sex toy?", "blah, blah, blah...


Here's something entirely different that very few of you will be interested in but here it is for the one or 2 guys that might like this sort of thing.


I've been looking for one of these old brakes for several years now. This one popped up on a sell n swap site about 350 miles from me, I hooked up the trailer and headed that way.



the seller had a large skid loader, it was barely enough to lift the 2800 lb brake onto the trailer. When I got it home we backed the trailer in between my 2 post hoist, rigged it up, lifted and drove the trailer out.



We set it down on a makeshift dolly system using a set of go jack type of car movers and some 3" tubing. Rolled it out the back of the shop where we do our sand blasting.



Started sandblasting.



Epoxy primer

Then I had some left over single stage urethane automotive paints that I mixed together in my best attempt at a roper whitney blue/green.

I used a BMW blue, a ford silver and an old 90's polaris snowmobile color called black sapphire.

This is an 8 ft 14 gauge combination brake. The lower leaf is drawn upwards rather than the top being drawn down. The top leaf is mounted in huge dovetail rails and can be drawn back as much as 8"! The nose bar can be fit with radiused nose bars for radius bending. It also accepts segmented fingers that can clamp on, converting the straight brake to a box and pan. So, crisp tight bending, flatten seams, jointing, reverse bends, radius bends, box n pan... that's why they called it the combination brake.

Granted I don't have the segmented fingers (yet) but I will be looking for some.

Thats cool.

14 guage!

That sure looks good Sir David. How thick steel will that bend?

You’re going to be able to make some clean stuff with that. I know you’re excited. Can I ask what you paid for It?

$2500

I still prefer the rustic look of heat n beat.....or cut n weld.

Kinda like hammered copper.....

Very nice but what does that have to do with the Mueller report?

This^^^ Or the McCains backing double-barrel Joe?

I'm somewhat cornfust I must say

ND, I have no idea what that is or what it really does, but I admire your abilities and enjoy your show-and-tell pic’s.

Pretty cool; Dave.

You can do some major tin smithing with that old girl.

Flash backs to metal shop in high school

stuff like this.





grab the handle, swing it back to open the jaws.





position your work piece and close the jaws

swing the bottom leaf to fold the piece.

fold it past 90 if you like, this will single bend to 135 degrees



Unclamp and place the piece between the nose bar and bottom leaf to close to a seam.

How did you do that kind of work before you bought it Sir David?

That thing is a beast. What a cool way to work on classics!

Great combo tool! You don't see those every day! Congrats!!

Ya did good, ND!

A co., that I worked for, closed the plant and auctioned off all the equipment. There was a small 5', hand operated brake for sheet metal. I sure wanted the small brake, but it wasn't to be. I dont remember what it sold for, but it was way out of my range.

One lady bought at least 1/3 of the machinery at that auction. Several 18-wheelers rolled in the day after the auction, was loaded with the equipment the lady bought, and hauled it to Mexico.

Pretty amazing to a hammer-and-Duct tape guy! My professional work was also with “my hands” but in a much different way.

The company I worked for for thirty-nine years was started by William A. Whitney, who also started Roper-Whitney (also known as Whitney Metal Tool and Whitney-Jensen}. There was some confusion as to which one was first, but he lost them both due to alcoholism. Both were located originally in the old water power district in Rockford, IL. Roper-Whitney and W. A.Whitney competed in the hand tool line for many years; shortly before I started in 1966, WAW moved into hydraulic equipment, and heavier material, while R-W remained in hand operated sheet metal equipment. The Roper in the name is linked to the Roper stove company, through common ownership many years ago. It is gratifying to see an classic piece of machinery returned to use.

Awesome information and confirmation that my post was not a waste of time.

I have a $hitty joke of a brake, Chinese junk. Advertised as a 4 ft 16 gauge but it springs and flexes, frustrating.

It's for sale now, want to buy it? It's really good....

lol

my buddy who builds dirt track modified roundy round cars has one of those. used it a couple times years ago.

That's a nice unit Dave. I used one of those many, many years ago when I was a kid, had to walk to work uphill both ways and the one I used was bigger...........

An FYI, If you get your fingers in the wrong place on that thing you will no longer have to look around for a set of segmented fingers.

The welding shop I bought it from had used it for aluminum dirt track bodies for about 10 yrs.

Doesn't look like they knew how to set it up though, it's got some pretty precision adjustments that can be made that make a huge difference in how it performs. We got it dialed in, super happy with it.

Smiling...

good humor.

Cool it bends metal.

Very cool!

Very cool find. Wait until the dirt track racers around there find out you have it. They'll be wearing you out!

A leaf brake is much handier than a press brake for one off jobs, plus you only have to change the radius bar instead of top and bottom dies.

Do you still remember the formula for calculating bend deduction ? 😀

Nice pictures and all, but gotta say-I like Fieldgrade and ElkHunterNMs more better.

do tell.

Had no idea either !

That thing is awesome.

I've got a pipe bender, for doing exhaust bending/flaring/reducing, love that thing.

Reminds me, I need to source the right dies for square tubing, got a couple of trailers that need some work !

That thing is old school cool!

I've used the same brand, maybe one size smaller, same color green as yours was before blasting. As you probably know, the fingers will be very handy. If local searches in your state & Wi. don''t turn up anything, check the Cinci. & Clev. Oh. used machinery dealers. The ones I used to visit in the Cinci. area had tons of the older stuff.

Congrat's on the new to you equipment.
Looks like you will be doing some new projects with it.

Have some fun while doing them.

I have access to one of those when ever I need to bend some metal. I have done a lot of cool stuff with it.

Very nice

I did a five year apprenticeship to earn my Journeyman status as a Sheetmetal Worker. Spent many, many hours operating brakes like that.

a cheap brake can be very frustrating !

The engineers tbat designed it drew it on paper.

Math, paper and experience on deflection etc.

I think thats part of what hooks me, i love old American made equipment.

Dude, I think they burned you. That thing didn't break anything, only bent it. Maybe they'll give you your $ back since you gave it such a fancy paint job. No problem, you can thank me later!

That is awesome, Dave!

You've got yourself a fine brake. I'm envious.

Dave

Did you prime and paint outside there?

Excellent job on the restoration. You'll get many, many more years of use outta' that old piece.

That is really cool Dave: the find, the resto, the capability of a machine our fathers or grandfathers used. May it serve several more generations of benders!

I did on this one. Not too fussy

Nice find, Dave! I found a similar 10' brake a while back, bought it for a friend with the caveat I could use it occasionally. I get a lot of aluminum road signs, they will snap if the bend is too tight so we backed the jaws off a bit to increase the radius.

Bending aluminum can be tricky. Have you tried annealing first?

NEAT find, Dave! Wish you were closer, every once in a blue moon, I need something bent - and access to a brake is tough to find, locally.
I just don't need one badly enough to buy, though.

I haved owned that brake prior, have a different 8' now.
I am a sheet metal mechanic and have used many different brakes and presses in my lifetime. Yours is a good one

When things were built to a standard rather than a price point.

Beautiful!


So it makes perfectly straight pieces of metal crooked?

correct.

Very cool piece of old time quality made equipment. Haven't seen one in many years. Are there any of those available new today that aren't built in China ?

Yes there are some US made brakes. Roper whitney, national, tennismith are a few that come to mind.