hey there my name is Mike Montgomery and
today I'm going to show you how to build
this incredibly simple jig for bending
sheet metal all the way up to plate
steel on modern builds if you want to
see this jig in action make sure and
follow the link in the description where
I'll be using it to make the monitor
stand for a desk build to start I got my
inch and a half thick polystyrene
insulation as a cutting mat then I lay
down some three quarter inch pine
plywood that I'll be building the base
out of the base for this jig is two
pieces of 3/4 inch plywood glued
together I use gorilla glue wood glue
because it dries closest to the natural
color of wood than any other wood glue
I've used most dried to a really yellow
color that sticks out and looks really
bad here I'm using my maker brand
f-style clamps to clamp my two pieces of
plywood together so that I now have an
inch and a half thick base
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after trimming my plywood base to size I
got some inch and a half by inch and a
half angle steel that's an eighth of an
inch thick
I used my angle grinder with a cut-off
wheel to cut it to the same width as my
plywood base from there I marked out
locations and used my punch so that I
could drill holes where bolts will be
attaching this break to the base that's
made out of plywood this metal piece
which I'm calling the brake attaches to
the end of the plywood base and here I'm
using a pencil to mark out location so
that I can drill holes that bolts will
be going through later on I did my best
to try and drill as vertically as
possible but hey it doesn't have to be
perfect and after flipping the base over
I could put my bolts in and as you can
see they have a rounded head which means
that the bolts themselves need to be
recessed so that the base can sit flat
against a tabletop
I drilled four holes but I'll only ever
be using two bolts drilling multiple
holes allow me to spin them at different
widths depending on the size of metal
that I want to bend the brick just goes
over the bolts and then I'm able to
thread on some wing nuts to tighten
everything down it's my understanding
that whatever you're bending plates till
you want to cut a groove half the
thickness of your material wherever you
want that bin to be I'm gonna use the
angle grinder on this eighth inch thick
plate steel to cut a sixteenth inch deep
groove if you've been watching my videos
recently then you've seen me doing this
especially on the desk video that I put
out last week I made my groove with the
cutoff wheel and then switched to a
grinding wheel to make the bevel
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all right let's see if this works hmm
that's a little tougher than I feel like
it should have been but I do have a good
idea for a little more leverage check
this out I had some scrap pieces of
plywood laying around that I used as
clamp on handles as an idea I like the
clamp on handles because it's adjustable
if I had a 20 inch wide piece I can
spread it all the way to the edge or a
thinner piece I could bring them in just
like this there we go not bad for a
first try I'm gonna try cutting a little
bit deeper of a groove this time this
time instead of cutting halfway through
my metal I cut close to two-thirds of
the way through my stock
I also took a little bit longer with my
grinding wheel to make a wider bevel so
that there was less material to get in
the way of my piece bendy
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well that second one was a lot easier I
don't think it was so much that I made a
deeper groove it was more than I did a
more dramatic bevel on each of the edges
and what's really awesome about this jig
is you don't always have to cut grooves
if you're using thinner metal like this
piece of sheet metal you can clamp it
down and Bend it without any help
although I did find that if I used one
of my wooden handles to press the metal
against the break it got a lot cleaner
of a bend you can also bend a lot
thicker metal here I've got quarter inch
plates till I cut a groove with the
angle grinder beveled the edges just
like before and I was able to bend that
one in place with a little help from my
clamped on arms since I cut two sets of
holes on my angle stock in my platform I
was able to bring my bolts in closer so
that whenever I tightened everything
down the points of contact were closer
to where I was bending
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so let me know what you think about
these shop tool jig videos they're a lot
of fun to make and they really help
expand what I can do creatively if you
plan on building this for yourself make
sure and download the plans linked in
the description on my website check out
the videos on the side and don't forget
to click that subscribe button down
below me I appreciate all the support
through the maker brand lunch if you're
interested in clamps or finish make sure
and check out the link to the website as
well thanks again everybody and we'll
see you next time on modern builds
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