I've recently started using the press break at work. This thing is old, worn
out and very difficult to get set up to get decent repeatable bends.
Aluminum is all ours every sees, and not very thick either. I have some
questions for those professionals here who use one.

My boss says that even new CNC press brakes can be troublesome to set up. He
says that they often need shims under the dies or on the back stop to get
good setups. Someone please tell me that this isn't so. I can't believe that
a brand new break press would be like that.

My boss also says that the center of a part will always bend different than
the ends, and therefore you need to shim accordingly. True?

Is there an online tutorial for press break setup? I've been going by the
seat of my pants and have been very frustrated. Today I literally spent an
hour on setup to bend 8 pieces of aluminum into "L" shapes the long way.
Even after that I had to manually adjust some of them at the bench
afterwards.

Lane