On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 11:13:40 GMT, T i m wrote:

These folk seem to offer something in my price range .. (24.96
delivered g)

http://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/

(scroll down to "18" Mini Bending Brakes")

It's a dog. Go for the one like the Machine Mart design instead, but
with a single central handle and diagonal buttressing. Harder to store,
but it gives you squarer bends. If you use these two-handled ones and
don't have perfect synchronisation on the bends, then you got cockled
edges. Might be OK on ally, but steel is a problem.

Mine was some generic Lucky Golden Hedgehog picked up at the Model
Engineer for 30-some squid. At those prices it's not worth welding your
own up (it really needs a milling machine with a boring head to
accurately cut the counterbores for the bearings).

Dad has a real up-and-down brake, the Axminster 300 quid one. Goodness
knows why, the thing is the worst of Chiwanese bucketshop manufacture
and bits keep falling off it. There's a proper old British-made 6' wide
brake in the shed too, if only he'd move the lawnmowers from on top of
it.