i'm tired of the bench vise heat and bend approach, so i'm going to build a simple press brake to use in my shop press. i've looked at a bunch of pictures that people have made, and my only question is the die angle.
i've seen a lot of pictures where people have used two round rods as a lower die, and i may do that for now as a simple stop-gap solution, but i want to make a 4 sided lower die once i find a piece of suitable steel around.
my question is: what is a good angle for the lower and upper dies? i'm thinking somewhere around 80-85 degrees for the lower - does that sound about right? also, should i make the upper die to the same angle, or should it be a little less, like 75-80 degrees? obviously, since this is just an attachment for a small tonnage shop press i'm planning on an air forming setup, which is why i assume i want the angles to be less than 90 degrees.
i've seen a lot of pictures where people have used two round rods as a lower die, and i may do that for now as a simple stop-gap solution, but i want to make a 4 sided lower die once i find a piece of suitable steel around.
my question is: what is a good angle for the lower and upper dies? i'm thinking somewhere around 80-85 degrees for the lower - does that sound about right? also, should i make the upper die to the same angle, or should it be a little less, like 75-80 degrees? obviously, since this is just an attachment for a small tonnage shop press i'm planning on an air forming setup, which is why i assume i want the angles to be less than 90 degrees.