# New "3 in 1" sheet metal toy



## dgjessing (Oct 28, 2011)

I found one of those 12" slip roll / press break / shear things for $240 delivered, and couldn't pass it up. Been tweaking it, and I'm (guardedly) pleased so far.







The shear works pretty well after adjusting everything. The blade is held back against the frame by two screws which quickly loosen up causing the blade to hit the table. To fix that I've put in a couple bolts from the rear and two nuts to lock against each other. Big improvement, but I want to get some better looking/fitting hardware. 






The slip roll needed more work. The supplied bushings on the end of the top roll were way too sloppy in their slots in the end plate castings. I made new ones which fit much tighter:






... big difference!

I've never used a press break before... going to take some getting used to. I've done a lot of adjusting to get it to do 90 degrees with the scrap steel I've been testing with , but then it does another angle if the gauge is different. I'll figure it out eventually. 

I already wish I had room for / had bought a bigger one, but I don't and I didn't.  I'm thinking it's going to be a real handy thing to have around. ;D


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## steamer (Oct 28, 2011)

Tell us how you make out with that!....I too have been eyeing....though I haven't the foggiest idea where I would put it!

 :big:

Dave


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## Tin Falcon (Oct 28, 2011)

I have a green one of those I picked up the last time I was at Grizzly.
Tin


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## RonGinger (Oct 28, 2011)

I had one of the green 36" ones from Grizzley. The most charitable thing I could say about it was uh, um, um. I cant think of a damn thing good to say. It was given to me by a friend ,I passed it along.

I also had one of the 12" versions and its a much nicer machine. I only hated it a little. I sold it and got a Shop Fox 24" box break, and a 12" bench shear. Those are not bad.

Sure wish I could find/afford a real break and shear, like from Pexto or similar.


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## dgjessing (Oct 29, 2011)

This is the last shear I used: http://69.43.61.114/FMPro?-db=wi.fp5&-lay=web2&-format=IMDetail2.htm&Stock Number=8178&-Find  ... at a buddy's shop before he was forced to "downsize" by the crappy economy. 

That had a bit more capacity...


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## Blogwitch (Oct 29, 2011)

Personally, after having one for many years, I would only recommend one to my worst enemy.

The shear is OK in the small size but can't cope with much thickness, but as you move up the machine the worse it gets.

Unless you are doing exact right angles, where the metal gets trapped between the former and the blade you can't bend any material to any other angle without getting very large radiused corners.

The rollers at the top are basically uncontrollable. I have made a steel rim for a flywheel and a few small boiler shells plus a few other ring rolling jobs, but they were an absolute pig to do, trying to stop them forming a taper, the rollers just aren't fixed rigidly enough.

My suggestion would to be buy separates if you can afford to do so, this machine just isn't worth the price they charge, in fact it wouldn't be worth it if it was free.


John


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## dgjessing (Oct 30, 2011)

I dunno - I'm still pretty well pleased with it. The slip roll *is* a piece of crap as delivered, but my new bushings have made it just fine, as far as I can tell. I'm not having any trouble avoiding unwanted cones . I've only re-done the top roll so far - the back one seems to fall into place pretty well. Another thing I did with the top one was to turn a conical point on the adjustment screws. I think that makes the adjustment a lot less rough. The same thing might fix the back roller completely... It would also help to replace the ball ends on those adjustment screws with some sort of "T" handle, so it's easier to keep track of turning them. 

I've been "pushing" it a little; the shear seems to handle .035 steel without any problem. The slip roll and the break can go thicker than that with care. 

You can notch corners with the shear in two cuts, not to exceed about 1 1/2" depth - that's going to be handy. I suppose you could also cut off strips longer than 12", less that 1 1/2" wide, in multiple cuts.


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## dgjessing (Nov 3, 2011)

So here's what I've done with the screws that lift the rear roller up & down - turned a bit of a cone on the ends (before & after): 






... and sanded flats in the ball ends so it's easier to count turns (before & after): 






The conical ends help because the screws come into the bushing slots a bit off-center. The cone shape puts the thrust positively off to the one side, so the bushing is pressed onto one side of the slot, preventing it from flopping around. Same thing done to the top roller screws - makes a big difference. 

So now that I can (theoretically) do some sheet metal work, and will want to be able to weld really thin stuff, I broke down and bought a Smith "Little" torch :

Kind of a lot of money, but my ancient Ward's "PowrCraft" regulators are both pretty much shot, so I *needed* the new ones, right? ;D

It's amazing how tiny a flame this thing can make! Haven't done anything useful yet, but I'm making some decent looking welds in 22 ga. steel! Need to shop around for smaller diameter welding & brazing rods. 

Pulling both subjects back together somewhat, I made a sheet metal gizmo to hold the torch's tips:


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