i'm looking to buy a brake, shear, and roller to help fab up intake manifolds. just curious as to what thickness aluminum everyone uses? i was thinking something between 1/16" and 1/8"- would 5/64" work decent? my tig will not weld low enough to do 1/16" and with 1/8" i'm going to have to spend quite a few pennies on a big enough shear and bender. any advice is greatly apreciated!

 

1/8" will be fine. With 1/16", you will have to think a lot about the shape of the design, as shape will determine flex...and flex will greatly reduce lifespan of the welds. Generally speaking, 1/8" will be fine for any intake applications, and it's thick enough to weld easily.

 

basicly i'm wondering how good 5/64" would work because of the brake/shear i am thinking of buying is capable of 40" of 18ga mild steel. i'm not too sure it would do 16-18" of 1/8 aluminum but i think it may do 5/64"

the unit i'm looking at is the harbor freight #43353 shear, press, and roller with a 40" capacity on 18ga mild steel. 18ga steel is about .048" and i've been told you can multiply by 1.5 to get your aluminum capacity which would get .072" and only using 1/2 the width of the machine should give me a little extra head room thus deciding on 5/64". the machine is on sale for $499 and the next larger machine up goes for $999 which is quite a price difference.

thats alot of numbers and its got me quite confused. i wonder if the guys at the harbor freight store would let me bend up a practice piece on the floor display?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by quickersol &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i wonder if the guys at the harbor freight store would let me bend up a practice piece on the floor display?</TD></TR></TABLE>

certainly wouldn't hurt to ask.....worst they can do is say no.

 

1/8" is fine for the plenum, I use 3/16" for the bottom of the plenum, with the 4 holes for the runners, you run into problems with the material warping and getting a wavy look when using 1/8" for the bottom. If your going to bend 1/8" alum, you want to do it in a press brake, not a regular sheetmetal brake. The clamping from the sheet brake will cause the alum to stretch and crack as you bend, with the press brake its more formed into the angle.

 

well i bought the harbor freight 40" 3 in 1 tool but it doesn't quite handle the 3/32" sheets with hand power. it shears the sheets ok but the press brake will not bend any decent length of that thickness. i may return this thing or i'm also considering getting a couple hydraulic cylinders and a portapak air operated hydraulic pump and converting this machine to have a little more power. i think the machine is definatly built on the beefy side and could handle the extra force.