Revised and improved basic sheet bender

[Robbie260]

Has anyone noticed to actually complete and project you have to start a whole load of others .

But anyway I digress.

Copying a basic bender I have seen in a few threads across the fourm with a few revisions to make it a tad more versatile.

cut some slots at various intervals in the bar too hopefully allow me to make small boxes etc. A bit of creative supporting was created to stop the whole lot tipping over.

Nice deep chamfer as I want to weld and grind flat so the leg becomes part of the bending surface.

And this is where it ended for today, nearly but not quite up a well known creek without a paddle. Typically as according to sods law turn the mig on pull the trigger gas comes through but no wire, took the tip off as it was rather grotty and tried again gas but no wire. Hauled out the welder took out the wire reel and slacked off the tension on the drive roll and pulled the trigger gas turned off at the bottle, no movement of the drive roller. So on to Highland industrial supply's and the brilliant guys there are getting my welder sent to swp to be fixed, hopefully it's still under warranty. Dropped it off at my local branch today so hopefully will know what's wrong soon. Might have to resort to stick or tig to finish this project, though that can wait till tomorrow. A bit peeved though as it has only had about a 1/4 of a 5kg reel of wire run through it.

 

[Robbie260]

So got on a bit with the bender this morning. It's oddly enough very difficult to buy 7018 rods in the Fort. Had to go scrounge some of some friends at one of the local welding companies, they don't do much stick welding but they keep getting free sample packs of electrodes from Lincoln so they gave me some of them for nothing. cheers guys.

First leg welded on. Root pass the cap over the top should really have done 3 and it did quite turn out as good as I would have liked but it was ok.

Second leg on forgot to take a pick of the root but was happier with the end result of this one 3 passes total including the cap.

Starting to take shape the steel box will go in to make a support like structure will show more details when I get there.

 

[Pilgrim22]

Hello Robbie,

Do you have any drawings / plans for this bender please?

Regards

Paul

 

[Robbie260]

Hello Robbie,

Do you have any drawings / plans for this bender please?

Regards

Paul

Hi Paul I'll try do some for you but I'm one of these annoying people that dose these things off the top of thier head. Or I'll see if I can find the thread I got the idea from think it has some drawings on.

 

[Pilgrim22]

Cheers Robbie much appreciated

 

[finyuk2005]

You are so right about getting welding stuff in Fort William, H.I.S is pathetic! I had to order online!

 

[Robbie260]

You are so right about getting welding stuff in Fort William, H.I.S is pathetic! I had to order online!

Yes generally have to go up to H.I.S in Inverness unless i know specifically what I want and get them to order it for me.

 

[finyuk2005]

Yeah the inverness one is really good!
I am starting to think that we are spoiled up in Orkney for good shops!

 

[Robbie260]

Yeah the inverness one is really good!
I am starting to think that we are spoiled up in Orkney for good shops!

You guys are Kirkwall is a great place lots of nice shops even on the highstreet not just tourist rubbish.

 

[Robbie260]

Actually things have moved on so I'd better update this. My stick welding dose need some serious practice, though I seem to be improving with regards to doing into more awkward places as this project slowly progresses.

 

[Robbie260]

The box section has gone in as a lower support and then individual supports are going in to the space between the angle iron and the box section to support the cut put pieces of angle.

 

[Robbie260]

Another mix of good and terrible welds. And this is as far as I got today about half the supports fully welded in.

One thing I noticed though was it didn't quite look right and sure enough when grandpas level came out it wasn't.

This is probably not enough bow to matter but I'd say if anyone want to copy this you may be better welding all the frame and supports together first and then cutting the slots to prevent this from happening. I'd also say I should have clamped the angle to another straight piece before welding in the box section to ensure it stayed straight. But you live and learn.

 

[Robbie260]

Cheers Robbie much appreciated

Hi Paul sorry for late reply I didn't get a chance to measure up and make plans but found a YouTube link to a smaller version of mine.

The angle with the slots in is 1015mm long on my version and is 30mm by 60mm, each slot is cut to a depth of 40mm then reinforced by a 40x40mm piece of box section. This is then tied in by 40mm tall coupons to the angle iron. The uprights are 30mm x 30mm angle iron claimed and welded so the are square and flat to the angle to extend the bending surface. All angle pieces are 6mm and the box 3 thick. The coupons are quite a bit thicker but they were just made out of scrap I had lying around.

 

[bricol]

View attachment 275980View attachment 275981

Another mix of good and terrible welds. And this is as far as I got today about half the supports fully welded in. View attachment 275982

One thing I noticed though was it didn't quite look right and sure enough when grandpas level came out it wasn't.View attachment 275983View attachment 275984
This is probably not enough bow to matter but I'd say if anyone want to copy this you may be better welding all the frame and supports together first and then cutting the slots to prevent this from happening. I'd also say I should have clamped the angle to another straight piece before welding in the box section to ensure it stayed straight. But you live and learn.

I wouldn't be surprised to see un-cut angle bow like that with lots of little bits welded into it if the welding was a bit vigorous on each one

 

[Big_B]

Has anyone noticed to actually complete and project you have to start a whole load of others

So true

 

[Robbie260]

I wouldn't be surprised to see un-cut angle bow like that with lots of little bits welded into it if the welding was a bit vigorous on each one

Yes I some ways you are right but I believe it was there before I started to put them in. The little bits are all hammer fit.

 

[Pilgrim22]

Many thanks @Robbie260 another project to get underway :-)

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Quite like that small one in the video....I might have to make myself something like that. I bought a load of steel to make a large bender....then I got lazy and just bought one so I have a load of heavy steel. I quite like the idea of a bender with a flat surface for hammering that I can have next to me when I'm making up small patches. Saves getting up all the time (my knees are really shot these days).

I don't really see how the bigger one is working but I'm happy to keep watching to find out. Will you be adding a folding bar or something to the design?

 

[OJCar]

One thing I noticed though was it didn't quite look right and sure enough when grandpas level came out it wasn't.View attachment 275983View attachment 275984
This is probably not enough bow to matter but I'd say if anyone want to copy this you may be better welding all the frame and supports together first and then cutting the slots to prevent this from happening. I'd also say I should have clamped the angle to another straight piece before welding in the box section to ensure it stayed straight. But you live and learn.

Have you thought of trying Flame Straightening it?

 

[tom2207]

great video , the guys in the ship yard that used to do this work kept a lot of the techniques to them selves , it was one of the black arts.