Bending Sheet Metal Drawers

With the patterns on the following pages and your sheet metal in hand it s time to lay out the project.

Bending sheet metal drawers.

Bending sheet metal by hand is a manageable task if the piece of sheet metal is small and thin enough to handle. 2mm mild steel and 1 5mm acid proof steel 316 evolution in home depot. Most frequently expensive sheet metal bending tools called brakes are used to bend sheet metal but you can also complete this task without one. Also known as press braking flanging die bending folding and edging this method is used to deform a material to an angular shape.

Similar to other metal forming processes bending changes the shape of the work piece while the volume of material will remain the same. Sheet metal bending is the plastic deformation of the work over an axis creating a change in the part s geometry. I needed to put a drawer on my welding cart and thought what better thing to make as my first instructa. The force must exceed the material s yield strength to achieve a plastic deformation.

Mine is a little different because it is all metal. Then all you need to do is cut out the pattern make the bends and spray on a coat of paint. Made a drawer to my drilling station. In this instructable i will be showing you how to make a metal drawer for whatever you need.

I m a home gamer with minimal experience working with sheet metal however i have a decent grasp of the fundamentals of bending. Bending is one of the most common sheet metal fabrication operations. I m working on some 16 gauge drawers for my work bench. Kaka fb 4 4 inch hand operated steel bending brake high flexibility easy operation sheet metal forming bender 4 4 out of 5 stars 23 142 99 142.

It s easy to cut and bend but still has plenty of strength. I am using the harbor freight 36 brake with surprisingly good results in 16 gauge cold rolled. How to make a metal drawer. For shop projects like these 22 gauge steel is about right.