Bent Sheet Metal Box

This is a great project to make if you are new to working with sheet metal.

Bent sheet metal box.

If you want a sharp 90 bend tap along the crease with a mallet. To think about bending a sheet of metal that has appreciable thickness focus on an imaginary central sheet the so called neutral line or neutral axis within the thickness. Mark a bend line and place the sheet metal on the edge of your bench. Finally bend the sheet up by hand to the angle desired.

Box bending can be rather tricky with sheet metal because of the geometry of a press brake. Typically the upper beam or punch holder will get in the way of very deep boxes. How to bend sheet metal without a brake. How to bend sheet metal without a brake in 4 different methods with minimal or homemade tools.

Runs right at the limit of precision flat sheet metal in a job shop environment. Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle. As a general recommendation 0 005 in. Clamp the wood on top of the metal to the workbench.

For bent sheet metal variation in the raw material thickness increases the recommended precision to 0 010 in. When bending with large returns there are a few tricks outside of just tooling selection. For a battery box. Layout method sheet metal stretches when it bends is an oversimplification.

But when we get to the this project my students always have a hard. Most frequently expensive sheet metal bending tools called brakes are used to bend sheet metal but you can also complete this task without one.