Some additional info... *MANY PICS*
L. Hanson
>It really does look great, Skip. Since you used the design off of my site - I thought a couple pointers from my experience with mine that may be of some help...
After bending several backs, the bar that acts as a pivot point started bending when starting the second bend - that's the piece of straight bar in this blow-up that has the cut-outs for the hinges:
To review for those that are wondering what I'm talking about, the steps to bend a back with this brake go like this: First, you place a piece of brass the proper size in the brake, then place the entire brake into a machinist's vise (helps to hold it all together, it really isn't strong enough on it's own):
Then bend it over like this to about 90 degrees:
You then re-position the brake in the vise to make the second bend, like this:
Then make the final bend:
It's during this last bend that the pivot bar wanted to bend up after the first 30 or 40 backs - to fix it, I simply add a couple of vise-grips to hold the pivot bar down when starting the bend (there's no brass in the brake in this picture, but I think you can get the point):
I then bend the brass until it hits the vise grips, which is far enough that the problem with the pivot bar bending isn't an issue.
This brake I built quickly, out of store bought stuff. I really only meant to use it on a few saws - but now I've got over 100 backs bent on this one, and it still keeps going:
I've been meaning to make a heavier duty brake, but somehow never find the time. I guess as long as this one keeps working, I probably never will.
Another quick tip - use at least 1/4" bolts to hold on the "handles" (which are just short pieces of angle on mine). I had #10 sized bolts in mine and kept breaking them. Actually, in the first pictures above, I just jammed them into the bolts holding the hinges together.
Finally, I added a few extra screws to each of the hinges (closer to the pin of the hinge) to keep them from bending. I was noticing when bending longer backs the hinges I used (which were salvaged from a door) were bending at that point. Since I added the screws, I haven't had a problem.
HTH
Leif
www.norsewoodsmith.com
