I was just at KMS and there’s a 48" box and pan brake on clearance there for $600. Usually twice that price new. Will do up to 16 gauge. We have space for the tool on top of the shelf cart in the welding shop.
I’ve had my eye out for one of these used for a while, and this actually looks like a pretty decent deal. Group buy? I’m down to throw 50 bucks at this.
I’m in for $60/10% too. I’ve been wanting a box/pan brake for the space for years… it’s my evil plan to teach everyone how to use it so fewer boxes are made on the laser.
Unofficial statement, I haven’t discussed in detail with the rest of the BoD yet, but I’d be amazed if this didn’t fly:
IIRC* the rule was if members raised 70% of the price, the space would kick in the remaining 30%, up to an absolute maximum… that I don’t know what we agreed on precisely, but I’m certain it was less than the $200 that would be required here by close to an order of magnitude.
Assuming a retail price of $672 including taxes, and no S&H, the threshold that members would need to hit here is $470.
* edit: I wrote the original policy, so it’s not incredibly unlikely
All right… with everybody’s pledges, including mine, we’re up to $540 pledged, so I went and bought it. It is a lightly damaged unit, hence the price, but it doesn’t affect function, and it won’t be hard to fix.
I really like the “first bend” party idea… let’s say this Tuesday at 8 pm. I’m totally gonna try and fold an origami crane out of aluminum flashing!
Thanks everybody for your support and enthusiasm in this. This is an awesome tool to have in the shop, and it will really expand our capabilties.