7 ft metal break

[Frank S]

I hacked some scrap together a few years back to form some 7 ft long 12 ga mild steel parts. The thing is as with many of my homemade tools I might complete them just enough to accomplish the task I have at the time then shove them aside. Well today I needed to make a storage rack for a trailer I rebuilt last year to give us a place to store the tarps since they only get used about 1 in 10 or 20 loads but always stay with the trailer just in case.
this break may never be much more than it is now but it works great the way it is.
the frame is made out of 8" C channel like the one used as the hold down in the first picture
the the swing form is made from a salvaged DOT bumper from a trailer the hinge pivots are 2" pipe with 2" round welded to the swing form

I found this cutting edge in my scrap pile so it is now part of the tooling for the break

this is a piece of 8 by 8 by 1" angle iron that makes a great forming anvil


It helps to own a 16" heavy duty "C" clamp when breaking 2 or mode sides to a part


What do you do with a spare tire rack that you do not need?
answer you turn it into a storage rack


once we un roll and re roll the tarps I think I can get 4 to fit in there just nicely