Bending flatbar, pipe, sq. tubing.. ect..

[Danny_S]

Anyone have benders for doing this? I built a bender at work similar to the one on http://www.shopoutfitters.com/   I still need to turn down some of the dies for different size radiuses. I hope to make a few things with it, brackets, hangers ect.. and sell some for a few extra bucks.

[DanG]

Those are some neat tools, but a bit pricey if ya ask me.  I can see why you're making your own.  I bet it will work just as well.

My Dad once made a bending jig out of a half sheet of ¾ plywood.  He used it to bend scrolls for decorative posts on carports and patios.  He cut about 4 inches off of one edge, then cut that into pieces, which he cut out with a scroll saw and screwed to the corners of the remaining sheet.  Each corner made a portion of the bend, so that 2 trips around the jig made a complete scroll.  He made hundreds of posts with that jig over the years, and a lot of them are still in service after 50 years.

[Danny_S]

Had some time to play with the bender a bit now that I got a few of the dies made. One is for making sharp right angle bends... It works well..







From left to right, a round die, square stop block, the sharp right angle die and a couple of bent parts.. no particular use for them just random bending to try it out.



Once I made the plant hanger for the wife it paid  for itself in her eyes... heheh!

Should be lots of fun making up parts and things with this. Must be someone on here that needs parts made for the mill ..  ;) I have alot of 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 3/8 flatbar of random lengths and widths to get from work. First thing is to build some shelving brackets for the shop...

[Qweaver]

The Hossfel bender was the original design for these types of benders.  They have been around since the beginning of time and every kid that took high school metalwork, back in the day,  learned to use one.  Better bolt that dude to the floor in very strong way because you will certainly try to bend more than you should at some point.  It's a real art to make accurate, compound bends with these things but it beats the heck out of a vice and anvil.
Quinton

[Danny_S]

Yea that looks like what is going to be the challenge. Someone needs a pipe bracket like the one in the pics in my previous post. It needs to fit 2.5 " pipe and needs 1.25" tabs. So how long of a peice of flatbar do you need and where the heck do you start the round bend ???

I have a 2D cad software, A9Cad it is called, free download @ http://www.a9tech.com/   Now I just need to know how to use the drafting software!! But this should help immensely on how to make complicated bends.