Homemade 4' 3mm Hydraulic Metal Bender 'work in progress'

[bluebanana32]

Ok, so this is a work in progress.
I have for over a year been planning to build this project and yesterday finally got round to starting it.
Fundamentally this is similar to the smaller 30 ton metal press/punch I made several years ago and posted on here. However this is purely for metal bending and has a fixed bending die at the top which is welded to the sides. The central 30 ton bottle jack is balanced by 4 washing machine drum stabilisation springs at either side. There is a long boom arm that operates the jack so it can be operated when there is a large sheet of metal in the bender.
The RSJ's are 6"x4" and the top one has been cut chamfered and has a 25x5mm angle iron welded to the chamfered edge. The sides are 100x100x4mm box.
I still have to weld two pieces of upside down angle to the moving RSJ and it need some feet and wheels as it weighs nearly 200 - 300 pounds.
More piccies to follow when it's finished.

 

[bluebanana32]

Change of plan...
I am now going to use two 20 Ton air powered bottle jacks instead of one 30. That way the hole thing can be operated by a switch and will balance the stress when bending. I have added some wheels and two handles and capped the tops. I have also added two feet which have larger bars that fit through the holes to provide extra stability when folding. Nearly done!

 

[DrNik]

That looks deceptive in the pics, looks smaller than you say, what can it bend??

 

[bluebanana32]

That looks deceptive in the pics, looks smaller than you say, what can it bend??

It's not that big, it has a 50" folding capacity, i'm hoping it will bend 3-4mm, I'll be happy with that. I have seen some very similar though that will bend 5-6mm but I'll have to wait and see. Fingers crossed.