Roller combined shear and press brake

I was lucky enough to go to a work shop sale this weekend and I picked up a few items.

Never a very nice experience looking over a deceased estate.

I bought a few items, a set of three rolls combined shear and press brake. The rollers will be very handy, the shear I think will be a bit limited.

Has anyone seen one of these before or have any knowledge as to the limitations of it?

Brian

Yes, a 3-in1 Machine.

I have something very similar from Warco, purchased a few years ago now. To be honest, I haven't used it that much (just the 'rollers' a couple of times). I tried the 'shears' but wasn't too impressed - although I understand that (with careful set-up) they will cut thin materials well enough - but nothing too heavy. Haven't needed the benders at all (just use two metal bars and a hammer in best bodging mode!)

There's a similar machine here - and perhaps more usefully - a PDF Manual for it that should be useful

**LINK**

Good luck.

IanT

I have had the 24" version for many years now and use the shear & press a lot. Never used the rollers and a mate of mine said he had to make up new bushes for the rollers before he could use his. The ones that came with the thing were much too slack. I would recommend spending a little time setting the thing up then it should give good service.

Cheers Derek.

Well Brian - hopefully you didn't pay too much for your 3-in-1 machine and are very happy with your new purchase.

My advice generally (to others) would be think carefully whether you really need this type of tool and also will it be capable of the work you require of it. The general consensus seems to be that they do need some tweeking to get the best use out of them.

However (like so many things "Home Machinist" ) these machines can be brought up to a usable standard (whatever "usable" is in your terms) and will give you a much better head start than trying to build something from scratch. I know that some people prefer to have separate tools for each these functions but workshop space is now at a premium and (given it's very occasional use) for me it's a good compromise. I have a long (long) list of projects and the shears could be very useful for some of them, so perhaps that will motivate me into giving my 3-in-1 a bit of a 'tune-up'.

Good luck with yours..

Regards,

IanT

Edited By IanT on 10/11/2014 09:52:49

Ok thank you for all the advice. I will have a play with it soon as I have some tanks to make for my loco.

Cheers Brian