Sheet Metal Brake

I finished building a sheet-metal bending brake and have found it to be very useful for fabricating patch panels. If it is within your budget I would recommend either buying or building a small metal brake for fabricating patch panels. It is possible to bend metal using vises, hammers, pliers, and pieces of wood or steel, but I find the metal brake makes easy, quick, and accurate bends. I built mine just to prove to myself I could do it. It may have been less expensive to buy one but I learned many fabricating and welding techniques by doing it myself.

Unfortunately the following sentences do not apply because the url is not valid and I do not know if the information that was on this site has been moved.
I found plans for an "easy to build" metal brake on the pages of "Metal Web News". This isn't the one I built but it is very similar and is easier to fabricate.
If anyone knows if this site has moved or if the information is located elsewhere, please let me know so I can point interested viewers to the correct site.

I have found some other sites which have photos, information, and plans on how to build a sheet metal brake.

I built my sheet metal brake from the plans contained in the sheet metal brake book from Lindsay Publications

Sumner's (1FATGMC) Home Page - - www.purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/sumnerindex.html

Sumner's site has excellent information that is beneficial for all auto enthusiasts. A sheet metal brake page has photos and plans - I think the size of this brake may be a little bigger than you want - it isn't a benchtop model!

Sonex Links Web Resources - - www.sonexlinks.com/

SONEX is a basic and economical all metal two place monoplane. You buy the plans and build it yourself. They have a link to an article describing how to build a sheet metal brake.

Van's Air Force - Western Canada Wing - - www.vansairforce.org/

Van's Air Force Western Canada Wing is a group of builders and flyers of the RV series of kit airplanes. They have a link to a couple of pdf files describing how to build a sheet metal brake.