We made a variation of David Clay’s brake and reduced it to 48″ (due to the available materials at the local Menard’s store). A smaller brake is nice and a little less expensive than a full 96″ version. Most of the parts needed for the plane can be bent with this small of a brake with the exception of the ailerons, flaps and rear wing spars. So, without building another brake, the alternative is to simply purchase those parts from Sonex.
The 96″ brake will cost something in the order of $140 in metal and hardware. The mark up over raw metal for the Sonex parts is not that high and so the question is whether to build a larger brake for little cost savings (not to mention the potential of making an error during the bend process and wasting material) or simply order the pre-bent aileron’s and wing spars.
The cost of the long bent parts are as follows:
$22 for 96″ spars (x 2 = $45)
~$83 for each control surface or flap longer than 48″ (4 x $83 = $332)
So, since we already have the aluminum ( yes, we purchased all the 0.025 6061-T6 at once) we would be spending more on the pre-bent parts than on the brake. We don’t need to make the decision at this point and will take a shot at bending the rudder and elevator first. If we are successful at these then I think it’s clear that we’ll want to spend the time and money to build another (larger) brake.
Our version of the David Clay angle iron brake. Not painted and only made from 3/16″ x 2″ angle iron but it works very well for 48″ or smaller bends (which is a very large percentage of the parts needed as noted earlier).
Some of the vertical stablizer parts made with the brake:
