Hello from East Central Illinois

[Welldomatic]

Hi Gang,

My name is Terry. I have spent some time repairing older autos with the dreaded bondo and fiberglass over the years. I recently got into welding. My current rig includes a 180 amp MIG unit and a 200 amp stick welder. As a professional model maker and prototype engineer, I spend a lot of time working with CAD/CAM CNC milling and turning along with laser cutting and 3D printing. Throw in a fully equipped woodshop and you can see what I do.

My website is www.scmodelworks.com

I'm currently building some powder coating equipment and find myself needing to do some brake bending and beadwork. Having CNC mills, various metal cutting saws, and other tools, I figure that I can make my own bead roller.

The bending will probably start with a used brake off of CL or ebay unless I can find a decent set of plans with which to build one. I will say that I'm intrigued by the Eastwood 3 in 1 unit but my experience with multi function tools has not always been great. One of the 3 usually ends up being mediocre in function. If someone has experience with this unit being a good tool, please let me know.

I hope to learn a lot about metal metal forming from all of you and hopefully become good enough to be able to reciprocate for future newbies some time down the road.

So that's me in a nutshell.

Thanks,

[crystallographic]

Originally Posted by Welldomatic

Hi Gang,

My name is Terry. I have spent some time repairing older autos with the dreaded bondo and fiberglass over the years. I recently got into welding. My current rig includes a 180 amp MIG unit and a 200 amp stick welder. As a professional model maker and prototype engineer, I spend a lot of time working with CAD/CAM CNC milling and turning along with laser cutting and 3D printing. Throw in a fully equipped woodshop and you can see what I do.

My website is www.scmodelworks.com

I'm currently building some powder coating equipment and find myself needing to do some brake bending and beadwork. Having CNC mills, various metal cutting saws, and other tools, I figure that I can make my own bead roller.

The bending will probably start with a used brake off of CL or ebay unless I can find a decent set of plans with which to build one. I will say that I'm intrigued by the Eastwood 3 in 1 unit but my experience with multi function tools has not always been great. One of the 3 usually ends up being mediocre in function. If someone has experience with this unit being a good tool, please let me know.

I hope to learn a lot about metal metal forming from all of you and hopefully become good enough to be able to reciprocate for future newbies some time down the road.

So that's me in a nutshell.

Thanks,

Hi Terry,
Welcome to the forum.
You will find numerous builds/mods in the archives as many folks build the tools to build their projects.
Usually the bondo and fiberglass are over the metal.
Having the woodshop is helpful because I have seen a wood-framed punishing hammer, somewhat West of you, in Brodhead, WI.
The 3-in-one machines have been on the market for decades now, made by different offshore companies. Some are decent and very usable on .032 and .040 aluminum.

[cliffrod]

Welcome to the forum, Terry. Sounds like you'll fit in just fine.

[BTromblay]

Hi,

Welcome to the group, I have a 40 inch, 3 in 1 machine that I have used for 20 years. I formed and cut alot of 2024-T3 aluminum parts on the machine. Most of the time, the material was .020 to .050 thick. All three functions worked well, just like any tool, some times you want the form a test piece first.

Bill