Sheet metal score bending - Angle grinder guide

[ruxu]

As many of you know one way to bend thicker sheet metal without a brake is to score the backside of the sheet at the bending points. Freehand scoring with an angle grinder is not that easy if you try to get accurate bending lines. I am just making a swarf tray from 1,5 mm steel plate so I had to make a quick improvement to the process.

What I did was a U-shaped slider that I fixed to the free handle thread of the angle grinder.



This U-shaped slider runs on a 20 x 20 mm square tube that is clamped down on the sheet metal piece at a distance 38 mm + the intended sheet metal flange in my case.



As the angle grinder now slides on the pipe the only thing you have to do is to monitor the depth of the score that should be about half of the sheet thickness in this case.



When the workpiece is scored it is quite easy to bend the flange using suitable iron bars. Here is a trial 45 degree bend made on a 1,5 mm scrap piece.