Veteran Box Brake in Service Again

A sheet metal hand brake is designed for bending sheet metal. It uses a hinged clamping bar to hold the metal down against the bed. A hinged bending "leaf" is lifted to fold the metal around the fulcrum point of the clamping bar to the desired angle.

This past week I re-assembled a veteran (read that: vintage or old) Box Brake. A box brake is used to bend sheet metal, and this one was disassembled when I acquired it at the Daniel Boone Home workshop from Lindenwood College.

My brake does not have any capacity, manufacturer, city or date information on it, just multiple coats of silver and industrial gray paint on it, so I don't have much in the way of historical information about it. It is riveted construction with square-head nuts and bolts holding it together. I'll guess 1920's construction date, I'm open to other guesses if there are clues that help date it.

My first assembly had the clamping bar levers reversed, meaning you had to push the levers back to lock the clamping bar down. But the clamping bar didn't want to lock. When Bill looked at it he thought something was amiss, but I hadn't used a bending brake in so long I couldn't remember how they worked. A call to my buddy Tim inquiring how his brake worked set me straight and now after putting the arms on the correct side it works!

Bending 16 ga. mild steel (0.060 thick) did not seem to be a problem, it could probably do 14 ga. if I needed to bend thicker material. The clamping bar and bending 'leaf' are kinda beat up after years of use, so it will not produce tightly angled bends without some surface marks, but that's okay, I only need it to make ash pans at the moment.