End view of the brake showing the clamps and end of the radius board, the bending bed and the bending hinge. There are 6 - 3" Stanley door hinges on 12" centers. I tried larger hinges... don't waste your time and money... 3" are ideal and work the best! The brake is 5', but can be used at the end of a 4' wide table no problem.This started out as an 8' brake and after a few iterations wound up as a 6" brake(yes 6") after many screw ups and 2 years... I forgot to try a keep it simple. The bed surpports are 2 x 4 - 10" peices on 12" centers at each hinge location! The handle is 16" and just 2 - 2 x 4 and 1 - 2 x 3 spruce and a box of 2+1/2" #10 wood screws. The handle could be longer... say 24" that way you would have a loger moment arm, thus less force, but the 16" works fine. The "L" angle you see is 4' x 0.032 and I had no problem bending.

This brake is long enough to bend all of the parts under 5' for the 701 build... I will finally get to build an 8' or 10' for the longer stuff but right now this one is a keeper this time!

If you are not sure if it will work for you... start out small - 6" and 1 hinge is all it takes to get you going... and once you get it right, then just add on to whatever length you choose! Just don't start backwards like I did... and DON'T use anything other then Solid Clear(no knots) Douglas Fir! Almost forgot, just to give you some idea how tough D.Fir is... I went through 4(yes 4) - 1/8" dril bits, each screw hole has to be drilled full length otherwise the screw will just not go in. When it starts to smoke then chuck the bit and use a new one as it will break off in the hole... been there, done that!!!