building a bender - help/suggestions wanted

[izeman]

hi

after having tried to bend without any tools, only heating the steel with my torch, i'm not too happy with the results.

so i decided to build a bender by my own. searching in this forum i saw some similar design.

as i only want to bend 4mm solid steel, and 6mm tubes, i designed a bender for bending these two diameters, with a bending radius of 4, 10 and 20mm.

as you can see in the picture, this shows the 20mm radius (=40mm diameter) [3] set. the steel is hold between the 2 yellow bolts [1] which are plugged into holes of the base plate (approx 70x70mm, 10mm thick) [5].

there are 2 4mm/6mm thick slices with a borehole of 8mm and a diameter of 20mm and 40mm.

counterpart [7] can be adjusted, and be plugged into holes [2] to accomodate for different bending radii.

bending arm [4] is turned clock wise.

i hope i made this clear. it's hard to explain even in german ;)

i don't know if it's really necessary to use wheels [7], or if small 8mm strong bolts would be ok as well. those could be plugged in 8mm holes of the arm from the top (instead of using these wheels, which takes some time to be produced on a turning lathe).

any suggestions welcome. if i really will finish this project, and results will be satisfying, i'll be happy to publish the scheme.

thanks izeman

[rmdesignworks]

looks to be a very good design...i would suggest flipping the positions of the bolts at position (1) and add a second set of holes for them at the 20mm radius bend,,unless the (1) bolts are meant to be one for the 20mm and 1 for the 40mm,,then leave them and make it

I would stick with the wheels as they will help fight kinking and flattening of the tube when you bend it

[izeman]

thanks for the feedback.

bolts [1] are meant to FIX the steel between 3 point. [2x bolts and 40mm disc]. i have not found any easier way to fix them. i know fix will be not easy to achieve as borehole need to be very precise, and will get loose as bolts wear out. but by using something like insulating tape (heat resitent) i could achieve a custom fit.
i thought of fixing them with some kind of screw but didn't find any easy solution.

i will see how easy wheels are to manufacture. the will be made of aluminium as well as everything that has to be made on a lathe. i hope this will not wear out to fast.

one more question to those that bend a lot: how many radii do you normally use? 1,2,3 or even more? what are the most needed ones?

[rmdesignworks]

ya know you might try some small diameter pulleys made for fans or something,,they come in small outside diameters and varying mouth depth sizes,,1/4 inch etc,,just a thought,,then you wouldnt have to make the "wheels"

[PEDEcrawlerguy]

Originally Posted by rmdesignworks

ya know you might try some small diameter pulleys made for fans or something,,they come in small outside diameters and varying mouth depth sizes,,1/4 inch etc,,just a thought,,then you wouldnt have to make the "wheels"

x2... I was at a hardware store and saw some pulley blocks( snatch blocks)... in different sizes... I bought ones with like a 1" , 2", and 3" radii, went home, pulled them apart and used those for the dies. sure beats makin them.