Swag Off Road Press brake

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Scratch
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Swag Off Road Press brake

Post by Scratch »

I've been needing a way to bend steel for making boxes and pans and stuff like that for a while now, and my brother has as well so we decided to go halvsies on one of those Swag Off Road Press brake kits. I already have a 30 ton press so we went and ordered a kit. I have no mill so making one myself would have been more difficult, plus... I only paid 150 for it since I split it with my brother. Got it welded up a few weeks ago, then painted it and took a picture of it because everybody loves pics right!
brake.jpg
I'm very happy with it so far. It seems to be very beefy, the instructions were clear, and it went together with no problems and very quickly. Should work great for what we need it for.
After using it for a while, I still really like the press brake, but I find myself needing to bend either thin gauge steel or smaller pieces of steel so I was thinking about ordering their Flat Top adjustable bottom V-die.

Then I remembered I have a CNC plasma cutting table and some extra 1/2" AR500 steel so I decided to make one instead.

If you don't know what a "Flat Top adjustable bottom V-die" is, it's a piece that sets on top of the Swag press brake bottom die, and allows you to bend much smaller pieces by adjusting the distance between the front and back of the die. Here's the link:
http://www.swagoffroad.com/SWAG-20-TON- ... _p_94.html

I pretty much made a duplicate of that except my theory is "overkill is under-rated" so I beefed it up. I used AR500 steel, and used all 1/2" steel, instead of 1/2" and 3/8" steel that they used. I also added a support brace because I may have to bend Vibranium someday...

In this pic you can see the parts I cut out. The part on the right is the main bottom plate and has a support brace that almost touches the bottom of the existing brakes V-die. The two parts in the middle make up the adjustable V-die. The two round pieces on the left are spacers for the springs since it moves everything up a bit.
0.jpg

This pic is getting ready to install the Flat Top in the brake. (the fingers of the press brake are removed here)
1.jpg

The next two pics are of it installed, piece by piece.
2.jpg
3.jpg

The next pic is with the Flat Top all installed, and the fingers of the press brake put back on.
4.jpg

And the rest of them are as it sits in the press.
5.jpg
6.jpg
7.jpg

I can adjust the spacing of the Flat Top to whatever I need to and still get nice clean, small radius, crisp bends in up to 3/16" steel, but I'll be using the Flat Top more for smaller thinner pieces.

Next up... I think I need an air hydraulic jack... bad!

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I think I'm the oldest 10 year old boy on the forum...
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Ironken
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Re: Swag Off Road Press brake

Post by Ironken »

I love my 50t Swag break! I like your flat top knock off....very nice work. You gotta go to Charber Freight and get the Air/Hyd bottle jack.....sooooo much more skookum than hand pumping. I had one for my 20t set up. Good pics as well. When I get time, I am stealing your idea. Don't forget to grab one of these

Baomain Pneumatic Air Foot Pedal Valve VF200-08 PT 1/4" Nonslip Momentary 2 Position 3 Way Foot Switch https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M8K9SLZ/re ... jDbJZYMDXG

and you'll really be big pimpin'!

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weldguy
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Re: Swag Off Road Press brake

Post by weldguy »

Super cool tool guys! I'm looking into that :Like
ctgolfer1
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Re: Swag Off Road Press brake

Post by ctgolfer1 »

I have been contemplating buying the Swag set-up, I think you just put me over the edge, thanks for posting!
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Scratch
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Re: Swag Off Road Press brake

Post by Scratch »

Ironken wrote: Wed Jul 10, 2019 7:30 am I love my 50t Swag break! I like your flat top knock off....very nice work. You gotta go to Charber Freight and get the Air/Hyd bottle jack.....sooooo much more skookum than hand pumping. I had one for my 20t set up. Good pics as well. When I get time, I am stealing your idea. Don't forget to grab one of these

Baomain Pneumatic Air Foot Pedal Valve VF200-08 PT 1/4" Nonslip Momentary 2 Position 3 Way Foot Switch https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M8K9SLZ/re ... jDbJZYMDXG

and you'll really be big pimpin'!
Nice press, thanks for posting about the foot switch, that seems handy!
I think I'm the oldest 10 year old boy on the forum...
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