This is a complete view of the 8-foot bending brake I just finished. It's used for scratchbuilding parts - putting long bends in metal. I'll use it right away to fabricate my ailerons, and then later the fuel tanks and rear wing channels. This is a tool I've needed since I started this project. If you're thinking of scratchbuilding - you'll need this sooner or later. I built mine from the plans Dave Clay has published on the internet. So far I've found it to work very well. I made a few structural changes to attempt to beef it up a little. I used more bolts (6) to hold the bend plate to the base - you can see them in the pictures. I also decreased the rivet spacing to make the hinge stronger. I put rivets every 50mm instead of every 60mm. I ended up having to drill over 100 holes in 1/4" steel, but it really didn't take that long, and I think the improvement in strength will be worth it. I used the same drill bit to drill every hole. Go slowly, and use lots of oil. This really IS an airplane factory now!
