How Would Ya'all Cut An Angle

fleckner's garage

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Im going to make some press brake dies to be used in a shop press to put 90's in small sheet and strap. I know in machining there is a thousand ways to skin the cat so I'm curious on some recommendations on cutting the 45's(or other angles depending on the application) on the dies.

With some measuring and scribe lines I'm sure i could grind a decent edge with a hand grinder but i would like to do this on the mill.

stock will be a 3''x1''x12'' similar to attached picture.

photo2.jpg

45' chamfer end mill with multiple passes?

adjustable angle plate?

go find someone with a tilt head mill? (I have a 2ch kearney trecker mill that is very heavy and rigid but does not have a tilting head..)
 
I machined my male and female dies by mounting my vise on a tilting table. Had to do it it two setups because I didn't have enough X travel to do it in one setup. I'd post a picture but for some reason I am getting error messages when uploading.

Tom S.
 
I havent got any pictures of my setup, but when I made mine, (the male half), I used jacks and stops to get the die at the correct angle and just ran the endmill over it in the horizontal plane.

Cheers Phil
 
If the head tilts in or out. I would either use my vise or angle irons to hold the part and mill the angle on one side and then turn the part around and mill the other side to the same setting. That would put your angles centered on the part. You can do this to both parts making the angles on both identical.
 
I made my dies by using a piece of angle iron that I milled one leg off of to give me the angle I wanted. I then welded a piece of flat bar on the ends so I could clamp it down. You just need the angle for clearance. You will have to bend your material past 90 degrees to get a 90 degree bend because of spring back.
 
Was able to load pictures this morning. Here's a picture of my setups. First I roughed out the general shape of the "V" with the vise clamped to the table.
photo 22.jpg

Then I mounted the vise to my tilting table to machine the 45 deg. "V" to size and position on the die.
photo 25.jpg

Here's the finished product.
photo 18.jpg
Tom S.
 
Here is how I did one

I needed a 45° included angle for this project, so tilted the head to 22.5° and cut each side.
upload_2016-12-27_9-53-31.png

The die does not need to be the same shape, so I just cut a channel and chamfered the edges.
upload_2016-12-27_9-56-25.png


upload_2016-12-27_9-57-5.png

I put a shim in the bottom of the channel to control the depth. That way I could come down hard on the press. The height control on this press is non existent, very hard to control.
upload_2016-12-27_9-57-29.png

I did about 500 of these pieces in just over an hour
upload_2016-12-27_9-57-59.png

The press in this case is a modified import wood splitter. Normally use it as a broach press but it worked great for this project

upload_2016-12-27_10-2-48.png
 
Wood splitter used as press brake?
What'll you think up next. Gotta love it!
I never thought of a rectangular slot as the bottom die. That would save a LOT of effort. Thanks!

CHuck the grumpy old guy
 
I made about 3 linear feet of finger brake dies this year from 1” X 4” 1018 on my Bridgeport. Boy, did I misjudge that job. I had to step back and take note on how long it took and the many cutters it took. I tilted the head. You could weld up a fixture for machining the angle…Dave
brake.JPG
 
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