making bent links

[m1009cucv]

been spending a lot on this hobby. trying to do some cheap/free things.. i have some steel rod.. been heating it to bend it.. cant gett he bends equal. any ideas? maybe i could try some kinda plastic? thanks

 

[Perkolator]

trial and error. without machining them you'll probably never get them exactly the same -- but you can definitely get very close, which is probably good enough since a steel link will most likely bend again if you hit it hard enough. i would suggest making a template to compare your bends to. also, using a longer rod and then cutting to length after will probably give you more accurate results since the leverage is different and will allow finer adjustment.

 

[m1009cucv]

ok some good tips there thanks

 

[Armistice]

I have this. Haven't made links with it, but have done other misc. things with it and it works great. I've done 3/16 and 1/4 stainless

Tubing Bender - Save on this Manual Tubing Bender

 

[King James]

home depot or lowes sell tube benders for less than 20 bucks that have a degree marker, saves all the guess work and time

 

[m1009cucv]

not sure if i could bend steel rod with that

 

[trwelds]

you can, even just heat it up just to the point it turns brown and purple then bend. those hand benders are commonly used to bend stainless steel tubing so mild steel rod should be no problem.

but when bending its best to do it cold, the reason your bends are not matching could be from the rate at which they cool down, its hard to heat them up and bend at the exact same time and temp so as they cool the steel retracts at different rates and pulls tighter causing it to bend more. if you have the time you can draw a line on the table straight after your bend and leave your link there and watch how much it changes when cooling.

 

[cguit]

im in no way a fabricator, but cant u bend them over something u might already have? Like a spark plug remover, or an old socket set handle, or even the legs on a metal shelf?

 

[Perkolator]

when I did all the bending on my rig and for a bunch of small crap I made, I had tried out different techniques found in the Tools and Procedures section. first I tried bending rod with a bender and found it to be less desirable for solid rod. also tried bending around different objects. in the end and after practicing a couple times, my personal preferred method was to just mark where I want the bend, clamp the rod in a vice, heat up the section you want to bend while tugging on the end of the rod, pull flame away as soon as you feel the rod start to give this way you don't overheat (metal never got nearly close enough to change color, so maybe 600-1000*f). i found that overheating solid rod (from hobby shop) tended to make it brittle, like when I was brazing -- the rod would break/shatter right next to my joints, probably caused by overheating and losing the temper on the metal. so i guess in the end my method is to heat and bend by hand, and to mig weld everything to make my hard work last.

since you're talking about links though -- i've been using the DIY allthread+brakeline links without any issues with the links themselves. i've played around with bending them and for this I literally just assembled the rod w/sleeve and the ends, then clamped it in a vice and cold bent it by hand. no problemo. the only issue i've had with my links is that I've managed to break a couple Revo rod ends, which has nothing to do with the link itself "thumbsup"

 

[Armistice]

not sure if i could bend steel rod with that

Stainless steel is more resistive than mild

So when I say I bent 1/4 SS, you can bend 1/4 mild. No need to heat it up