Bending Sheet Metal Drawers

I m working on some 16 gauge drawers for my work bench.

Bending sheet metal drawers.

I m a home gamer with minimal experience working with sheet metal however i have a decent grasp of the fundamentals of bending. I needed to put a drawer on my welding cart and thought what better thing to make as my first instructa. 2mm mild steel and 1 5mm acid proof steel 316 evolution in home depot. Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle.

Bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations. With the patterns on the following pages and your sheet metal in hand it s time to lay out the project. Used left over materials that i around. Similar to other metal forming processes bending changes the shape of the work piece while the volume of material will remain the same.

In this instructable i will be showing you how to make a metal drawer for whatever you need. This is done through the application of force on a workpiece. Made a drawer to my drilling station. I am using the harbor freight 36 brake with surprisingly good results in 16 gauge cold rolled.

Sheet metal bending is the plastic deformation of the work over an axis creating a change in the part s geometry. In some cases bending may produce a small change in sheet thickness. Kaka fb 4 4 inch hand operated steel bending brake high flexibility easy operation sheet metal forming bender 4 4 out of 5 stars 23 142 99 142. The force must exceed the material s yield strength to achieve a plastic deformation.

Mine is a little different because it is all metal. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape. For shop projects like these 22 gauge steel is about right. How to make a metal drawer.