How to bend a steel sheet evenly without a bending machine

During the manufacture of products from a metal sheet, there is an urgent need to evenly bend the sheet to a given size. With a sheet bending machine, operations are much simplified, but not all masters have such a device. There is an easy way to do this without special tools and tools.

What you need to have

You will need measuring tools, a grinder with stones 1 mm and 2 mm thick. For safety, special glasses are required. We will bend sheet steel with a thickness of 2 mm, the dimensions are selected depending on the net length and width, taking into account the size of the bends. It is necessary to bend on any flat profile with a metal hammer.

The technology of bending sheet metal as an example

We will consider the process by the example of manufacturing a lid for a smokehouse. The sheet thickness in our case is 2 mm.
Make markup on the sheet. For each bend, 35 mm is provided, for bending it is recommended to subtract 4 mm from this size. Accordingly, a rectangle of 508 × 308 mm should be drawn on the sheet, the bends will be 31 mm long. Draw lines under the ruler.
To make the sheet easy to bend, you need to cut through the small grooves. Put on goggles or a mask and grinder walk straight along the lines, the depth of cut is about one millimeter, but no more. The thickness of the disc is 1 mm.
Change the disc to 2.5 mm and go through the lines again. There are two reasons to use two disks.

1. It is much easier to work with a thin disk, it gives an even cut, it is easier to control the depth.
2. A wide disc increases the cut, which allows you to bend the metal without stopping on the edges.

Cut one side of the corner, they are completely cut off after bending.
Start bending the sheet. Exactly along the cutting line, lay it on the profile, first bend one side, then the opposite.
Tap gradually over its entire length, bend slowly, do not try to make a large angle right away.
Repeat operations with the remaining edges of the sheet. If the line is not perfect, then put the part on the edge and even out the problem areas.
Check the product. Everything is normal - cut off the remaining ponytails with a grinder.
Boil the cuts at the corners. Grinder, remove scale, metal streaks and sharp edges, give a presentation.

Conclusion

An even bend is obtained due to preliminary cutting, along these lines the metal bends much faster, and the thick edges are not deformed. With this method, you can bend thick sheets under various products.