Grizzly 3 in 1 brake, roll, shear.

I am thinking about buying a 30" wide shear, brake, and roll from Grizzly and was wondering if anyone out there had any experience with this tool. It is only $300.00 and if it works OK it sure could come in handy making small sheet metal parts like brackets and access doors.
Jim Wright RV-9A 90919 wings Arkansas

rv9aviator said:

I am thinking about buying a 30" wide shear, brake, and roll from Grizzly and was wondering if anyone out there had any experience with this tool. It is only $300.00 and if it works OK it sure could come in handy making small sheet metal parts like brackets and access doors.
Jim Wright RV-9A 90919 wings Arkansas

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Yep, this is one of those nice to have tools. We bought ours from Harbor Freight. I have no problem shearing .050 aluminum stock with it and many times the clean edges it produce seem to require little if any deburring. A shear is a wonderful tool to possess and makes very short and precise work out of cutting sheet metal. I have occasionally used the rollers to work aluminum stock into slight curves but that is the extent of my experience with that function. A word of caution about the brake. The brake produces 90 degree angles with too sharp a radius for aircraft metals and if not reworked will likely cause cracking of the material over time given the high vibration environment in aircraft. Fortunately, I have a retired machinist friend who took the brake noses home and quickly reworked them to the proper radius for aircraft work. It now produces beautiful 90 degree angles. At the moment, I don't recall what that specific radius is. If the Grizzly tool is similiar, I'm sure you could find someone to do the work locally for a few bucks. Just address that issue (if required) and you will have a tool you will be more than satisfied with for a relatively low price. We keep ours well marinated with a coating of surface oil and stored under a plastic sheet to discourage rust. All in all, I think it is a tool well worth having.

Rick Galati RV-6A "Darla"

Thanks Rick,
It's hard to believe you can buy a piece of equipment for less than a dollar a pound. Raw steel isn't much cheaper than that. Looks like there is a trip to Grizzly in my future.

Jim Wright 90919 Wings Arkansas

Trick instead of radiusing

I want to echo Rick's comment about the HF bending brake (shear/roller combo) having too sharp an edge, causing way too small a radius. Bending anything thicker than about .020" it's problematic.

One alternative "solution" to this -- and it's really a stopgap, not an elegant solution or anything -- is to sandwich additional material in there when you're bending stuff. You can take a 40" or so long strip of .020", bend it sharply using the brake, then literally tape it to the male side of the bending brake. This becomes "part of" the brake and will increase the radius of anything you're bending. You could conceivably do the same to a 2nd strip (with the 1st strip "radius expander" already taped in place), and you'd then have a 2nd optional radius expander which you can tape in place as you need it for an even larger radius.

It's kind of kludgy and a pain in the butt, and machining the noses to a proper radius would be my 1st choice, but it works.

)_( Dan
RV-7 N714D (666 hours)
http://www.rvproject.com

I lucked out, I just got the 40" one from Harbor Freight for 399.99 + $38. bucks shipping, $200 off! Good sale.
Then I worked it over like those above (grinding, filing, sanding, deburing) and turned out a really nice stainless battery box for the Odyssey 680.
Frank
Wiring

Bending brake

A word of caution on using press brakes such as the 3/1 from Harbore Freight and the likes. Press brakes are limited to the radius to be bent. The bending die must be change (if available) Not enough radius, and it can break, the material, especially with the tougher alloys. A pan or box brake is a better choice, They have the ability to change radii, and can bend more than 90 deg.

HELP learning how to use my 3-in-1 Shear/Brake/Roll 40" machine.

I am a happy owner of a Harbor Freight 3-1 40" machine (got mine for $285 + tax) . I am an abstract artist and I am just getting into 3D metal art forms. I am a self-learner and a total newbie at using this machine. So, here is my question:

Does anyone know of any instructional book(s), video(s), CDs, websites or anything that will help me learn how to use this particular machine to its full potential? I may not need to use all its functions, but it will certainly be helpful knowing what it is capable of doing; And having a newbie's "idiot's guide" with lots of pictures and step-by-step instructions will be very helpful.

Your ahelp will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

I have also been looking for knowledge on this 3-n-1 tool. The library didn't offer much. Just old books about hvac sheetmetal work.

usmc4life said:

I have also been looking for knowledge on this 3-n-1 tool. The library didn't offer much. Just old books about hvac sheetmetal work.

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Take it a tool at a time. Go shopping and purchaes some roof flashing at your local.. hardware whatever. Or use any scrap that you have, 18 to 22 ga.

THE SHEAR.. It will cut anything that you can pull the handle down on. The handle can be extended by backing off the set wing nut and sliding the handle out your way. A light right at the shear upper blade will help to see the line to cut. Now take a piece of flashing and cut a strip about 3/4' wide.

THE BRAKE.. Now place that piece on the lower jaw of the brake. Center it and bring the top blade down and press it into the lower die till it stops. You have just made a boot for the top die to form alum parts. When you need it, just tape it to the upper die. If you need a bigger radious then form another on top of that one.

THE ROLLERS... Cut a strip about 2" wide and and length over 9". Push this strip between the right side of the rollers. Adjust the PINCH of the rollers with the screw at the top of the roller. Do the same to the left side. Now the roller should grab the part and pull it through as you crank the handle.

Now set the back roller. Adjust the screws on the back of the back roller. The roller must stay even side to side as you make the adjustment. Place the 2" strip in the roller and crank it in till it just passes over the back roller. Then screw the back roller in just enough to bend the strip up a little. Crank on the handle to run the strip on past the rollers and out the back. Grab it ant turn it around. Now you are going to pass it through again but from the other end. Give three turns on each screw that controls the back roller, and then crank the part through again. Each time that you turn the piece, it keeps from having a flat spot in the circle. Continue this process till you have a circle.

Now look for a book that will show you HOW TO USE A BOX AND PAN BREAK. Play with these three steps and you will be able to do most of the things that you will need.

These are great tools for the money. But if you really want to get the most out of this tool, you should take it apart and clean it up really good. File off any sharp edges, lube it and reassemble it.

Hope this helps.......................

Revisited

Well, I've owned the Grizzly 3 in 1 tool for quite a while now and as a machinest and someone used to having quality tools in my shop I am not impressed by this one. The only way to make this thing work properly and smoothly is to remachine a lot of the parts to make them uniform. The upper brake dies are actually sheared on the edges instead of machined. Every one is different. I took them all and recut cut the ends to them the same length and recut the angles to make them smooth and uniform.
The rolls work ok but the hold down screws won't stay locked down and will dissasemble itself right in the middle of rolling a piece of aluminum if your not careful. The shear is very flimsy and rolls the edges over even on thin aluminum and adjusting doesn't help much. It is certainly better than nothing but I would rather have three old worn out American made tools than a new one of these. I will agree for the money you can't buy much that would do what it does it just doesn't do it very well. Grizzly does make other tools that work great though.

I have a 3-in-1 from HF. It works very well for me.

As far as the brake, it does have a sharp radius as several have mentioned, but this is not a big problem. To make bends of larger radius, just make several partial bends. Usually two or three will work. I mark for these with a series of parallel lines to the required bend. Then start at the rearward line and move forward. Practice on some scrap and you will fine this works well.

A side note is to avoid trying to shear thicker material or hard steel (4130). The end castings carry the shear loads and can be easily broken with the thicker materials.

A lot of the Grizzly stuff appears to be almost HF stuff with green paint. Probably buy from the same sources.

i used to work in a pro sheet metal shop and we had this brake. it was my least favorite tool in the shop. that said we had $1/4 million worth of equipment to use. even if i scratch built a rv(still thinking of doing that) i would pass on it. it seems to me to be lot's of other work a rounds for what this does that will be as good or close. just my thoughts. a used regular 3' brake would be more versitle and adjustable for thickness. i have snips and can cut almost any thing smooth. i may take 2 passes and requires knowing how to use the tool right. (most people think they know how to use snips but don't) curves can be made over a pipe.
leon