What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Mittler ultimate box and pan brake

Legdoc

I'm New Here
Good day from South Texas, I am trying to find any experienced user of the Mittler B&P brake but not having much results. Any comments on this item would be appreciated.
Thank you!
 
This B&P brake must not be a very common item as I can't find anything on this unit here or on other sites.
 
Finger Nose Radius

One thing for consideration is that the Mittler (and most other brakes, for that matter), have a very small radius at the "nose" of each bending finger - making a concern for fatigue when bending aircraft aluminum.

You can make a "mask" with a radius (of some accuracy, or not) to slip over the fingers to help with this situation. Unless you make the mask in sections to match finger width, you still have the problem using the brake as intended, with leaves removed as necessary.

YMMV - just a thought.

HFS
 
I appreciate the help. The Mittler B&P brake must not be very popular as I am having difficulty getting comments from users of the unit. I have seen the videos. They have fingers with various radii for specialty work like aviation. But of course more $$$.
Thanks again!
 
The lack of response may be because there's not much need for a high end brake on an RV, even the old "mine your own ore" kits. I like Mittler and talk with them at every show but so far I'm just lusting for their stuff. I've made do with a 30" 3-in-1 roll/brake/shear and a 4' straight brake.
 
I am soon to start an experimental build and would think a 48" brake would come in handy. The main purpose is general shop use and trim fabrication on several standing seam roof jobs coming up.
 
Looks like a nice brake. I had a Tennsmith 48 finger brake, but sold it because work had a 48” National that I liked better. Radiusing the bend can be accomplished by setting the fingers back. I’d just use a little strip of scrap to find the right setting. Or, like others said, you can bend a piece if mild steel or stainless to add radius to the fingers. Just make sure to set the fingers back accordingly so you don’t pinch the target material. That method generally makes a more even radius, if that is important. Having all those removable apron and bed fingers could be handy on rare occasions. I have to tell you though, hitting your dimensions with more than a couple of bends will likely happen only after you’ve made a lot of practice scrap! I made a lot of side consoles out of (free) 5052 before I got the recipe down for committing to 2024. And poster board before the 5052!

You really don’t need a finger brake for RV kits unless you are making custom parts, like my side consoles. I use the crappy press brake on the crappy 3:1 HF machine I picked up on CL occasionally to make small stuff. Everything on that machine is garbage though. I’d love to score a nice old Diacro 16-24 manual brake. We had one in our prototyping shop back in the day that had a ton of tooling, like joggle dies, etc. It was awesome. You do give up length though. Have to go big/heavy to get much length in a press brake. In general, hitting your marks is a lot easier on a (good) press brake. Hard to go wrong with anything Diacro. Keep an eye on your local CL and such.

Beyond a brake, I use my Diacro notcher a lot. Very handy. Makes such clean trim cuts. Followed by my old lathe, Tennsmith kick shear, mill, brake, and roller. No punch at this time other than a Whitney 5 and XX.

Have fun!
 
Back
Top