Bending Aluminum Sheet Into U Channel

The sheet metal i am forming is 20 gauge.

Bending aluminum sheet into u channel.

How to bend sheet metal without a brake. Chicago metal is the leading resource for steel and aluminum channel bending and more. When i bend both sides 90 degrees i get about a 1 5 inch thick channel which works great. We can bend channels with the flanges out with the flanges in and the hard way of the web.

Punch and die are manufactured with certain geometries in order to perform specific bends. This would be ideal for a press brake but i do not want to invest a ton of money in a heavy duty one. A u bend is made with a u shaped punch of the correct curvature. 3 16th thickness steel is the max thickness most scrolling machines accept.

Then place the clamp bar back down on top of the aluminum crosswise. Also as aluminum comes from the mill it develops a coating aluminum oxide as it cools. Insert your aluminum sheet into the brake beneath the removable clamp bar. Make sure the bar is seated firmly inside the frame.

This makes the aluminum about as bendable as it can get. I can not make thin u channels. The force must exceed the material s yield strength to achieve a plastic deformation. Lift the clamp bar away from the rear of the brake frame and slide the sheet in perpendicularly to the direction you want to bend it.

This is done through the application of force on a workpiece. The easiest channel bending process is flanges out flanges in channel bending can be difficult if the flanges are relatively tall. This should anneal the 6061 t6 or other t into a t 0 material. I like scroll work but a lot of it looks very skinny and weak.

Channel bending uses a shaped punch and die to form a sheet metal channel. Note that aluminum does not change color when heated so getting burned becomes a real concern. π 180 x b x ir k x mt bend allowance ba where b is the angle complementary to your desired bend angle 1 to 180 degrees mt is the thickness of the material ir is the inside radius and k is the k factor. Bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations.

You can find your bend allowance with the following formula.