Box and pan brake

[jooky]

I am still tinkering with the idea of building a boat.
What is the cheapest press brake I could get away with for bending seat boxes and various things on a boat?
I'm thinking the biggest I would want to make is a 4 foot seat box about 4ftX2FtX1Ft in aluminum 3/32 thick.
If I dont buy my own bender I would have to call a local shop and I that would add up fast.

would this work?
http://www.toolamerica.net/Shop/Cont.../vpcsid/0/SFV/
I know with a brake like this I could only do the bottom and 2 sides, but Could a brake like this physicly bend a 4ft piece of .090 ?

[gonzo]

Seems like it should handle aluminum. Are you riveting or welding the boat?

[kmorin]

jooky, the brake will likely bend .080" 5052 alloy but I think it will have problems with 5086 in similar thickness. On the other hand 5086 needs a 4T radius to avoid strain hardening stress cracks in a bend so you'd most likely be doing three or four-shot bends not hard edge turns like 5052 will take.

Boxes, seats, hatch and equipment covers, drawers and various other fabrications can be simplified by folding; but in the end you may find it less expensive to hire a fab shop or make your own equpment.

Lindsay's Technical Books used to have little book on building your own sheet metal brake (fold) which I used many years ago to make a model that I could fold 3/16" x 60" x 5086 plate on. (I increased the material sizes and added a nose bar of 1.25" inches to get the rounded bends in '86 alloy and added some home made hydraulics to automate the manual design.)

If you have all boat plans and BOM, most forming shops will give a bid and you'd be able to compare the cost of all the sheering, forming and rolling to setting up yourself. I don't think a 400$ brake is going to be of much use above 0.080" even in the softer alloys.

Cheers,
kmorin