# How am I bending this metal with my hands? It's called a wave bend. Instead o...
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Author: Fabworks.com | Fast, Affordable, Sheet Metal
Platform: instagram
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## Content
How am I bending this metal with my hands? It's called a wave bend. Instead of one continuous bend line, you cut a row of slots along it and leave small tabs in between. Those tabs are the only material actually bending, so a part that would normally need a press brake folds over by hand. Three reasons people order parts this way. It skips the cost of a bend, since the part ships flat and you do the forming. It works when your geometry would collide with the press brake tooling, which comes up on deep boxes and tight returns. And it lets you set the angle yourself, which matters when you don't know the final angle yet or the part needs adjusting during assembly. If you weld, this gets better. Fold to your angle, tack it, then run a bead down the slots to fill them. You end up with a bend set exactly where you want it and stiffer than the tabs alone. Three numbers to get right. Slots at six tenths of your material thickness. Reliefs one thickness off the bend line. Tabs one thickness wide, narrower and the part is flimsy, wider and you won't fold it by hand. The tradeoff: those slots are permanent, and a hand bend won't hold angle as precisely as a brake bend. For an internal bracket nobody sees, that's usually fine. Link: https://www.fabworks.com/blog/wave-bend-featurescript-onshape #pressbrake #sheetmetal #fabrication #manufacturing #engineering #dfm #stem #machinist #lasercutting #madeinamerica #kfactor #metalworking #trumpf
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