Homemade Clicker Press and Steel Rule Bender

[abrahamd2k]

When one of my hobbies demand a tool my other hobby skills come to the rescue. Starting out in leatherwork I may not have the money to have fancy equipment but I do have the means to build what I need. Maybe someday I may get into selling more leather creations but for now, I am just preparing in case I do get serious in the future by having fun building cool things now.

The die bender is very simple and works well. Using Autodesk Inventor software I worked out a functioning model to build into a tables surface and a handle to push downward to counterforce any table movement that it may cause. I already have an idea to make a different version that will be able to change out the bending points (whatever they are called) and stay out of the way of the bending steel rule on itself by making most of the mechanism under the surface of the table like a few commercial designs out there.
The manual clicker press (pictured below) I made after a mini hydraulic press I saw online. Made some improvements by welding the joints solid instead of nuts and bolts (nobody ever takes them apart) for better rigidity and with tighter tolerances on the sliding parts so the press works smooth and solid.  Still, need a few tweaking on both machines but overall they were a success for my needs.

I would not recommend anyone asking me to make one for them because you can purchase the same class of tools in the open market for the same cost of what I would charge to make plus, the shipping cost. That said, in material cost, the press was estimated 40$-50$ and the die bender was built from scrap I had laying around. 
I am always open to suggestions and ideas for DIY projects like this that starving artisans like myself can benefit.

[Clintock]

Pretty nice. I’d be interested in how you done the rule bender. 

[RockyAussie]

Well done. Re the die bender I would think to make it foot operated as well so both hands are free to position the rule with.

On 9/20/2019 at 6:00 AM, abrahamd2k said:

The die bender is very simple and works well. Using Autodesk Inventor software I worked out a functioning model to build into a tables surface and a handle to push downward to counterforce any table movement that it may cause. I already have an idea to make a different version that will be able to change out the bending points (whatever they are called) and stay out of the way of the bending steel rule on itself by making most of the mechanism under the surface of the table like a few commercial designs out there.

[abrahamd2k]

On 9/21/2019 at 12:55 AM, Clintock said:

Pretty nice. I’d be interested in how you done the rule bender. 

Had an idea for a simple mechanism to apply enough force to bend the steel rule similar to other machines on the market. To my surprise, there is already something similar to what I made... 

Hopefully, to answer your question, I made it with 1/4 in metal plate, 1-inch metal bar stock and a few 1/4 inch metal pins including a wooden handle.

 

[abrahamd2k]

On 9/21/2019 at 3:37 AM, RockyAussie said:

Well done. Re the die bender I would think to make it foot operated as well so both hands are free to position the rule with.

That would be the best way to work bending the steel rules with hands-free. After a few dies, I wish I had implemented that. That will be the next project in the near future.