KAKA Industrial BDS-4, 4-Inch Magnetic Vise Mount Sheet Metal Brake Die Set, All-Steel Construction, Bend Up to 14-Gauge Steel

I'm in the process of replacing pieces of my inner rocker panel on a 24 year old jeep that has lived a rusty life in New Hampshire. I'm using 16 gauge sheet steel and using the metal brake to make perfect 90 degree bends. It takes a bit of effort to make the bend on steel this gauge, so I have limited my efforts to 5 inch wide pieces, but the tool does a perfect job every time. It's a whole lot better that using a vise and a hammer to make bends. The bends are precise and tight, and worth my time and effort. The price might seem a bit high, but buy once, cry once.... This is a quality tool I will be using for a long time.

I can't justify a proper finger brake, and my sheet-metal brake is useless for any 'inside' bends. So previously I had tried to use a vise and hammer for these bends. This little vise brake does a much nicer job. It's fast and easy to configure, install, and use. The magnets hold the brake very firmly in place.

Worked great. Great for flanges that would otherwise be hammered.

needs additional magnets or stronger ones other than that it worked excellent with 18 gauge steel which is all i've bent with it i suspect it will do well with 16 gauge as well

- I delayed reviewing this because, to use it, I first had to order a suitable bench vice (from Amazon of course, via Yescom to be specific).- I see that it's not currently available, which is a shame, because I found this to be *very* easy to use; the bending edge is surprisingly sharp, not sharp enough to cut a finger of course, but it bent my 18 Gauge 0.5"-wide spring-tempered 304 stainless strip easily. I was nowhere near close to able to make a decent bend just using pliers, but I was able to do so with this little brake while working with the vise on my lap!- The edge is surprisingly sharp, so it makes a very clean and precise bend. I'll have to bolt-down the vise to bend a full 4" width of 18 Ga spring-temper stainless, but once I can do that, I think this brake will handle it well.- The magnets are also *very* strong, holding the vise securely, very steady. The overall construction is excellent quality - no wobbly bits, no gaps, strong materials, close tolerances.- I had done quite a bit of looking at various types and brands of bending brakes before I settled on this one, and I'm very pleased with my choice. KAKA also has very responsive Customer Service :)

It's pretty well made. I cleaned it up, chased the tapped holes, and de-burred the knives. The stock die is about 3/4" across the face, so your minimum bend leg is over 3/8". Even that is not so easy to do. I just milled a 1/2 x 1/2 piece of mild steel on two edges. One side is 1/4" across and the other is 1/8" across. This let me bend a 1/8" offset in the 20ga steel part shown. I bent a bunch of these and they came out pretty consistent. I hold my part in place with a small screw through the back. I also like the case to keep things together.

Product came packed in a nice plastic container, as nice as you would expect for something like this. Each piece was wrapped in plastic. It works right out of the package.I bent 14ga ~1"x3" pieces and picked up the right amount of force to apply without overbending after my first bend. The force required to bend will feel the same and then you'll feel the resistance increase quite quickly (plus see it being close to bottoming out). That's the stopping point.The span across the "V" piece is 3/4-7/8" depending on where you measure. This is essentially the shortest piece of material you can put in the machine and easily bend. Someone skilled might be able to make it work not spanning the "V" but thats not me.I needed tabs that were only 1/4" tall so i barely spanned the "V", made the bend, and then used a cutoff wheel to trim it down to 1/4" on one side.This was my very first time to use any brake bending device. Super easy and quite affordable.

Works okay, the magnets aren’t strong enough to keep it in the vise, it would be great with stronger magnets.