Used Press Brakes: Tonnage, Inspection, and What to Pay
A used press brake is sold by tonnage, and tonnage alone says almost nothing. The rating means something only with a bed length, a die opening, a material and a stroke position attached. A listing that says “100 ton press brake” has given a buyer one number out of five.
This guide supplies the rest: the tonnage arithmetic, the drive type a small shop should refuse, an indicator-based inspection, tooling and guarding budgets, rigging, and price bands from 120 listings read on 3 November 2026.
Why Used Works
The frame outlives the systems. The iron does not wear out on a machine that was not overloaded. What wears is the hydraulics, the clutch and brake on a mechanical machine, the gibs, the backgauge and the control.
The inventory is deep. eBay’s Press Brakes category held 569 used listings at $1,500 and up on 3 November 2026, from a 3 foot mechanical brake to a 600 ton, 26 foot machine.
What kills a used machine is support, not iron. A worn bed is a regrind or a reject. A dead control on a machine whose maker no longer stocks boards is a parts donor, and that is the failure a buyer can see before bidding.
Mechanical, hydraulic and CNC
Mechanical. A flywheel, a clutch and a crankshaft cycle the ram. Southern Fab Sales notes that the ram must complete a full cycle and typically cannot be reversed during operation. Cincinnati’s brochure prints paired ratings such as 90/135 and states that capacity is quoted at mid stroke and near the bottom of the stroke.
Hydraulic. Cylinders drive the ram, pressure control gives finer depth control, and the ram can stop and reverse anywhere in the stroke. Most machines in the $10,000 to $60,000 band are hydraulic: 53 of 120 sampled titles mention hydraulic, against 8 mechanical.
CNC. CNC is a control layer, not a drive type: programmable backgauge axes (X, X1/X2, R, Z) on a hydraulic machine. A current Piranha 125 ton machine lists 0.001 inch backgauge repeatability and a parallel tolerance of plus or minus 0.0004 inch.
The one to refuse. For a small shop buying its first brake, refuse the mechanical press brake. It cannot be reversed mid-stroke, its tonnage moves with stroke position, and MNOSHA allows laser guarding only on hydraulic machines meeting criteria for control reliability, stopping performance and ram closing speed. Refuse any machine whose control has no support, and any machine sold with the guarding removed.
Brands Worth Buying
Cincinnati, Accurpress and Amada are the three names that hold their ask and have a parts path. A 1970 Cincinnati 70-8 asked $3,335, a 2016 Accurpress 710010 asked $59,500, and an Amada RG-50 with an NC-9EX control asked $12,000. The control, not the paint, separates the first price from the third.
Wysong, Pacific, Chicago Dreis & Krump, Betenbender, Rouselle, Heim, Piranha, HTC, LVD, Trumpf and Dener all appear repeatedly and all span the condition range. A 1968 Wysong 15 ton by 48 inch asked $4,400; a Wysong THS-100-72 with a light curtain asked $22,500; an LVD 150 ton asked $18,950.
Approach carefully. Private-label imports with an unserviced control, tonnage-only descriptions, paint-only rebuilds, and listings photographed from the front with the ram up.
Inspection Checklist
Tonnage against bed length
A published chart gives tons per foot for a thickness and die opening. Cincinnati’s chart, for mild steel at 60,000 psi maximum tensile, lists 9.9 tons per foot for 10 gauge (0.135 inch) over a 1 inch V die and 15.4 for 1/4 inch over 2 inch. PTI’s chart, at 72,000 psi, lists 11.88 for the same 10 gauge bend, exactly 20 percent higher, which is what the tensile ratio predicts.
required tons = tons per foot from the chart x bend length in feet x material factor
PTI’s factors are soft brass 0.5, soft aluminum 0.5, stainless 1.5 and chrome moly 2.0, with a 20 percent safety factor. Cincinnati’s V die rule is eight times the thickness to 1/2 inch, ten times above.
A 100 ton machine with an 8 foot bed has 12.5 tons per foot. That bends 10 gauge across the full bed (79 tons), but not 1/4 inch, because 15.4 times 8 is 123 tons. At 4 feet the same machine bends 1/4 inch at 62 tons. The machine did not change; the bend length did.
Ask four questions of every listing: tons, bed length, material and die opening. If the seller cannot answer the last two, the tonnage is decoration.
Ram parallelism and bed wear
Piranha publishes a parallel tolerance of plus or minus 0.0004 inch for Y1 and Y2 on its current 125 ton machine. On a used machine, what matters is the spread across the bed and whether it changes through the stroke.
- Clean the bed and the ram face, then bottom the ram with no tooling.
- Mount the indicator on the ram and sweep the bed left, center and right, then sweep the ram face against a square at both ends.
- Raise the ram 1 inch and repeat. A reading that changes with height is gib or way wear.
A test bend conflates tooling, material and geometry, and samples one spot. Piranha’s manual includes a bed leveling wedge for ram to bed parallelism, so a taper is the symptom and the indicator names the low end.
Look for a polished strip down the middle, a dished center, gib shims at their limit and cracked welds at the uprights.
Hydraulics, backgauge and control
Run ten cycles and watch for jerky travel, pump cavitation and heat. Check oil color, hose dates, cylinder glands and the gauge. Stop the ram mid-stroke and watch for creep.
Backgauges run from a manual screw to multi-axis CNC: X for the stop, X1/X2 for the fingers, R for height, Z for left and right. Check backlash from both directions, and look for a bent screw and dead limit switches.
Write down the control model and serial and call the maker. Delem states a 7 to 12 year product life cycle, so a control from 2005 is outside it, and an unsupported control turns a machine into a parts donor.
Tooling and the guard package
Many machines ship bare. Check the tang style, the punch holder and the straightness of the die rail. A cracked punch is scrap.
A used machine sold without guards or light curtains needs them before it is operated. OSHA 1910.212(a)(3)(ii) requires point of operation guarding, and 1910.217(a)(5) excludes press brakes from the mechanical power press standard, so the general rule and ANSI B11.3 apply. One of the 120 listings mentioned a light curtain. Auction listings describe the machine, not the safeguarding, so the absence of a curtain in the text is not evidence that one is fitted.
MNOSHA’s January 2026 directive sets out what protection looks like. Two-hand controls must require concurrent actuation during the hazardous portion so the operator cannot reach the hazard before motion stops, and they protect only the operator, not a helper. Presence sensing devices must be installed so an employee cannot reach over, under, around or through the field, must show an armed indication, and must be tested and documented. Laser guarding is allowed only on hydraulic machines meeting control reliability, stopping performance and ram speed criteria.
Mounting distance is calculated: 63 inches per second times the machine’s stopping time, plus device and control response times. Budget an engineered retrofit and measure the stopping time first.
What to Pay
Asking prices below were read on 3 November 2026 from eBay’s Press Brakes category, filtered to used condition and a $1,500 floor. The first two pages produced 120 listings, of which 58 are complete press brakes once dies, controls and other machines are removed; 45 state a tonnage. The median ask is $21,500, a quarter sit below $7,950 and a quarter above $49,500, and the range runs from $1,689 to $125,500.
| Class | Examples from the sample | Asking price |
|---|---|---|
| Small mechanical, gauge rated, 3 to 4 ft | Milwaukee Doelger & Kirsten 25-3, 3 ft, 11 ga, $1,689 | $1,500 to $2,500 |
| Older mechanical, 6 to 10 ft, 15 to 75 tons | Verson 22 ton, 8 ft, $2,600; 1970 Cincinnati 70-8, 96 in, $3,335 | $2,500 to $5,000 |
| Mechanical or older hydraulic, 45 to 100 tons | Verson 50 ton, $5,900; Chicago 46-C 50-75 ton, 6 ft, $7,900 | $5,000 to $10,000 |
| Hydraulic, 60 to 150 tons, some with CNC | Chicago 1012-L 60/90 ton by 12 ft, $11,999; LVD 150 ton, $18,950 | $10,000 to $20,000 |
| CNC hydraulic, 60 to 175 tons | Wysong THS-100-72 with light curtain, $22,500; Cincinnati 90CBx8, $29,500 | $20,000 to $35,000 |
| Late-model CNC, 60 to 175 tons | Ermak 66 ton, $39,500; Dener 135 ton 7-axis, $54,950 | $35,000 to $60,000 |
| 200 to 600 tons, long beds | Accurpress 400 ton, $74,990; Pacific 600 ton, 26 ft, $125,500 | $60,000 and up |
These are asks, not sales. A $9,500 Cincinnati 135 marked “Not Working” is a project, not a discount.
Accessories to Budget
A used machine often arrives bare.
| Item | Why it is on the list | Planning number |
|---|---|---|
| 4 ft punch and die | Most bare machines ship without tooling | About $970 new: P1 11 ga punch $470, D4 1-1/8 in die $500 |
| 8 ft punch and die | The same pair in a full-bed length | About $1,430 new: $700 punch, $730 die |
| Guarding and light curtain | Required before the machine is operated | Engineered quote, not a catalog item |
Tooling. American Machine Tools lists a Number P1 11 gauge punch at $470 for 4 feet and $700 for 8 feet, and a Number D4 1-1/8 inch die at $500 for 4 feet and $730 for 8 feet. Sectional tooling costs more because it is made in matched segments, and it is what makes box work possible; a segmented punch needs a hook tongue in a machine designed for it.
Rigging and transport. Weight is the first number. Betenbender’s chart lists an estimated 6,800 lb for a 6 foot, 50 ton machine, 11,000 lb for an 8 foot, 70 ton machine and 18,000 lb for an 8 foot, 95 ton machine. Piranha lists 21,500 lb for its 125 ton, 10 foot model, and a dealer listing for a GMC 70 ton, 6 foot machine gives a shipping weight of 10,000 lb.
A 10,000 lb machine is not a pallet. It needs a forklift rated at the load center, a drop-deck trailer with a winch, skates, floor protection and door clearance. Alltracon’s 2026 guide puts a crew at $200 to $500 per hour with a four hour minimum, a single-machine job around $3,000 to $3,500, and full projects between $3,500 and $45,000.
This is why the $6,000 machine on a pallet can cost more than the $14,000 machine under power. Add rigging at $3,000 or more, trucking, tooling at $970 and up, a guarding quote, the electrician, and the risk that the hydraulics are dead on arrival. The $14,000 machine a dealer runs in front of you has already had the inspection you cannot do from a photograph.
Where to Find Inventory
eBay. The widest net. Filter to used, set a floor, and open listings that state tonnage, bed length and drive type.
Browse used press brakes on eBay, filtered to used condition and prices from $1,500, in the Press Brakes category. That floor is where dies and control parts drop out of the set and complete machines begin.
Used machinery dealers. Yoder, The Equipment Hub and the regional dealers price above private sales and often list a stock number, so the machine can be inspected under power.
Plant auctions. As-is, with an inspection window, and rigging on the buyer’s account. If it cannot be seen running, price it as a project.
Private and retirement sales. Often the best package: tooling, guards, manuals and a seller who will run it.
Who This Is NOT For
- Buyers who need a warranty and a machine they cannot inspect. A new import is the other path, and the home shop setup cost guide is the budget conversation.
- Shops without three-phase power, floor space or a way to move 10,000 lb. The electrical service is part of the purchase.
- Thin-gauge HVAC and trim work. A box and pan brake is the right machine, and the used sheet metal brakes guide covers those.
- Buyers who want one machine to punch, shear and bend. That is an ironworker’s job, covered in the used ironworkers guide.
- Anyone who will run it without guards. A press brake that is not guarded is a machine waiting to take a hand.
FAQ
How much tonnage is needed for a given bend?
Use a published chart. Cincinnati’s gives 9.9 tons per foot for 10 gauge over a 1 inch V die and 15.4 tons per foot for 1/4 inch over a 2 inch die. Multiply by the bend length in feet, then by the material factor. A 100 ton, 8 foot machine bends 10 gauge across the bed and 1/4 inch only to about 6-1/2 feet.
What does a used press brake cost?
From the sample read on 3 November 2026: small gauge-rated mechanical brakes $1,500 to $2,500, older 6 to 10 foot mechanical machines $2,500 to $5,000, 45 to 100 ton machines $5,000 to $10,000, hydraulic with some CNC $10,000 to $20,000, CNC hydraulic $20,000 to $35,000, late-model CNC $35,000 to $60,000, and 200 to 600 ton machines above $60,000. The median ask across 45 listings that state a tonnage was $21,500.
Is a mechanical press brake worth buying?
For a first machine in a small shop, no. The ram must complete its stroke and typically cannot be reversed, the tonnage depends on stroke position, and safeguarding options are narrower than on a hydraulic machine. A guarded mechanical brake already on the floor is a different case.
Can a used press brake be run without guards or a light curtain?
No. OSHA 1910.212(a)(3)(ii) requires point of operation guarding, and press brakes are excluded from 1910.217 by paragraph (a)(5), so the general guarding rule and ANSI B11.3 apply. A machine sold without guards or light curtains needs them before it is operated. A light curtain needs an engineered installation at a distance set by the machine’s stopping time.