# Combination press brake/shear/slip roller



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

The days of using a uni shear and flat folders for sheetmetal work is quickly coming to an end. Neck issues from getting rear ended years ago cause the hands to go numb in short order. When home and I have stuff to do a straight edge and the plasma cutter makes short work of any cutting project. I built crude dies to place in our shop press for a down and dirty press brake, or I can drive a few miles in town and use their brake.

However I'm looking for something that I can take to jobs with me and use on site. I've found several used ones in the area, some are obvious chinese crap from either the name or price. One possibility is a Enco combo shear/press brake/roller. However for a few hundred bucks more than they want for it, plus the 2 1/2 hour drive each way I can have a brand new Jet delivered to the farm. Jet isn't my first choice if I can afford it, however it would be higher quality than the other chinese knock offs and most likely the Enco as well.

Looking at 30" capacity machines for portability.

A new Jet delivered to the shop is $849.

A new Dayton picked up from WW Grainger is $923. Made in China, looks just like the Harbor Freight model practically, different color paint.

A Balleigh, which I've never heard of with shipping comes out the same as the Jet.

The Enco is $500 plus my drive time. I've not been able to find anything much on Enco, but haven't gone thru a 6 pack of adult beverages looking either.

Harbor Freight, $400. Obvious lower quality.

Then a few brands that Northern Tool carries. They have Jet for the same price I found before, but additional shipping charges then something called a Klutch for $500 plus shipping.

Anybody ever use any of the above? If the Enco was closer I'd look pretty hard at it, Enco always was imported stuff, but used to be higher end imported stuff instead of imported crap from what little I've found on the internerd.

Back in the day when I first got out of high school and worked at a factory doing maintenance and fab work, Dayton always cost more, but it was always made in the USA, now Dayton just costs more but more than likely is chinese.

I'm leaning towards the Jet atm. I'm sure I could find something cheaper, but I've never minded paying more for tools as long as the difference in price is reflected in quality. 50 years from now I plan on people saying "he sure had a lot of nice stuff" at my estate sale instead of "what a bunch of crap".


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## SCtrailrider (May 1, 2016)

Could you post a link to these 3 in 1 things.... I'm a welder/fabricator for a living and haven't seen one, or if I have I didn't know what it was....


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

I always thought Balleigh made some good stuff. They make a lot of equipment for the hotrod metal fab guys.


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

I cannot comment on the type of machine you are looking at, but I can comment on the Jet drill press that I've had for maybe 15 years now. Just not impressed with it. No better than the Hazard Fraught version my brother bought a few years ago. Maybe that is exclusive to drill presses.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Lol....now that's funny rite there ^^^


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

Gearclash said:


> I cannot comment on the type of machine you are looking at, but I can comment on the Jet drill press that I've had for maybe 15 years now. Just not impressed with it. No better than the Hazard Fraught version my brother bought a few years ago. Maybe that is exclusive to drill presses.


Just won't chooch? Dang thing ain't skookum enough for ya?

I had an Enco gap-bed lathe that was fair for its price; the Jet is a better machine in lathes; Neither is built like a LeBlond or Monarch or even a South Bend. They're not priced like them, either!

Mark


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Jet: http://www.jettools.com/us/en/p/sbr-30m-30-3-in-1-shear-brake-and-roll/756031

Knuckle buster freight model: 30-inch-shear-press-brake-and-slip-roll-5907


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

glasswrongsize said:


> I had an Enco gap-bed lathe that was fair for its price; the Jet is a better machine in lathes; Neither is built like a LeBlond or Monarch or even a South Bend. They're not priced like them, either!
> 
> Mark


I have an old something in the shop, if you want to cut threads you need to dig the flat belt drive out and dig thru a five gallon bucket of gears.

Anyways, had an interesting conversation with a guy after our VFW meeting tonight. He made an orifice for me last year out of a #6 stainless set screw. Trying to do much with a #10 bolt gives me a headache, he found the right #6 setscrew, then got the magnifying glass out to find the right number drill out of this teeny tiny little rack of number drill bits, think it was a #76 drill, not much bigger than a human hair.

He has three surface grinders in the shop, the one that has a wheel on it that probably costs as much as I paid for my last pickup has a digital display that reads out to a millionth of an inch. He does a lot of work for GE and Boeing doing fuel metering parts for experimental turbines and jet engines. Anyways, he says JET is crap, he'd take his chances on the Enco if it is old enough. Most likely the Enco was high end Taiwanese crap instead of Chinese crap. He also agreed out of the Jet, Harbor Freight, Dayton and the rest, they were all made in the same factory, but somebody took a extra five minutes grinding the castings down so the paint would look prettier on the higher dollar units. Basically all of em were made at the same place, if it has crap castings all of em were going to have crap castings, the higher dollar ones would just have a better finish before they broke.

Wish we had $8 corn this year, he sold everything in his shop and will be moving to Belize, which used to be known as British Honduras, in the next two weeks. Him and his wife are really into scuba diving.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

PaMike said:


> I always thought Balleigh made some good stuff. They make a lot of equipment for the hotrod metal fab guys.


I'm gonna call em and see, they claim on their website its USA made, but thats also the higher end stuff. To be honest the few pictures I've found of their unit doesn't look any different than the Harbor Freight/Dayton/Klutch stuff.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

You mentioned moving to Belize forty or so years ago some people from this area moved to Belize e to start a church they stayed down there and one of the relatives farms near me he had never been down to Belize so him and his cousins rented an 18 passenger van and drove to Belize to see their cousins. 3300 miles and it sounded like the trip got fairly interesting once you got South


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

glasswrongsize said:


> Just won't chooch? Dang thing ain't skookum enough for ya?
> 
> I had an Enco gap-bed lathe that was fair for its price; the Jet is a better machine in lathes; Neither is built like a LeBlond or Monarch or even a South Bend. They're not priced like them, either!
> 
> Mark


Arbor handles wouldn't stay tight with out some ******* engineering, idler pulley and the bearing in it failed, chuck teeth stripped out, arbor is so loose in the bore that a machinists description of it would scandalize this site.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

After much more research, the Jet looks like the same unit as Harbor Freights, the Jet has a much better finish and a 2 year warranty instead of 90 days. The one from baileighs is imported, looks just like a JET/Central Machinery/Dayton. Only things I keep coming up with Enco is they seem horrible about supplying parts. Pretty disgusting actually, I'd think somebody would build their own thats worth owning.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Went to the welding/machine/fab shop in town and talked to the owner a bit. Alan Lee said most likely they all are built in the same factory, but also the Dayton and Jet get the parts used on them that meet a higher level of practically non existent quality control hence the better finish on the higher end stuff.


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