I don't like those things. They're hazardous. They're a roller, a shear, and a bender all connected together, so when you're using one, the other two functions are also moving. When you're trying to bend, there's this unguarded shear blade moving up and down.
TechShop has one, but nobody uses it.
They could give it to me, then, I'd have two.
I have to say that the risk involved is minimal when using this machine. To operate any of the tools, the user has to be standing at the end of the machine with both hands on the handles that turn the mechanism. This puts you well out of harms way and with a clear view of the different parts of the beast.
Feeding stock into the roller is best done from the front but requires only a few degrees movement of the handle to pinch the plate and then you can move back to the side.
The folding break is the most open aperture on the unit and does have an opening that would allow you to get a finger inside. The pressure plate that grips stock in the shear is set to act as a guard against getting anything squishy too close to the blades.
I'm the only person who uses the space where the thing is set up and there is no way for the uninvited to get in. I use the thing for a relatively short time at each use, being individual cuts or rolls, rather than a lot of the same operation. So I don't get blasé about safety. Also, I have enough affection for the protuberant bits of my anatomy not to put them at risk rashly.
I'd say that the thing is no more dangerous than some of the hand tools that I use, and I use those much more frequently than the plateworker.
My hammer, saw, drill...... is 'Hazardous', but the hazard is known and proper control measures reduce the 'risk' to as low a level as possible.
Being aware that the risk still exists tends to make you treat the thing with caution.
Shoggi.
Yup. The only bits that are worth saving on that player are the case and the battery compartment, which has a built in charger and a set of NiCads.
So far, I've cut and rolled about twenty blanks from the Brass stock you can see in the picture. The plate for the music box is the biggest up to now, being about 450mm long. The machine dealt with it beautifully. Easy cutting, clean edge, no distortion, very pleasing.
The other things have been small sections of 170mm lengths by around 50mm wide. These get rolled down to a 54mm dia. cylinder to be brazed up and capped with an end plate.
The rollers work work pretty well without any slippage and give a very even curvature.
They do give that characteristic 'flat' at the leading edge of the blank because of the clearance between the pinch rollers and the bending roller, but all these types of machine do that and you cure it by reversing the piece and sending it through the other way.
I've only used the folder to try it out, as yet, (not had a job that needs it) but it seems OK.
A musician friend has talked about some Brass boxes for his guitar FX pedals, so that might be a better chance to test it out.
So far, so good.
