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Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on January 2, 2016 at 7:40pm

I have never tried using a siding brake for aircraft part forming but have wondered the same thing. My "gut feeling" is that it would work only for parts made of fairly light gage sheet aluminum, siding metal is pretty thin stuff. Perhaps you should experiment with a few pieces of scrap of various gages and see how it does. Be sure to make sure it makes an acceptable bend radius, too -- a piece of siding that snaps because the bend radius is too tight does not cause the house to crash, a piece of airplane that breaks because of too tight a bend can lead to disaster.

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Permalink Reply by Randy Boykin on January 2, 2016 at 9:56pm

I have used a siding (flashing) brake to bend some parts and it works on lighter aluminum, depending on the brake, I was bending .35 not easy but doable. The radius is a bit sharp but you could use a shoe or some other device on the clamp part, what I did was be very careful and not bend it fast and move it slightly outward 1/2 way through the bend to get the radius I wanted. It is not a high production thing but I found it could be done.

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Permalink Reply by Pat Kelly on January 3, 2016 at 8:02am

My plan was to modify or make a new clamp shoe with the proper radius. I'm a machinist so it wouldn't be a big deal. It helps that the owner of the shop I work in was a home builder too. 

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Permalink Reply by Mark Gravatt on July 6, 2017 at 6:27pm

Great solution...

You make me wish that I still had access to a Bridgeport or CNC mill, lol.

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