Round Bar Bender

[Trevor HowleyParticipant @trevorhowley19606]

Hi gents any ideas out there for bending up to 8mm round bar please ,I have access to a welder and drilling larger holes.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

What kind of bends to you need to form? How many?

It will help others target their advice better.

Pretty sure there’s at least one published design for home-building that will handle 8mm from ME/W?

If you need to do ‘quantity’, these work well.

https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/product/universal-metal-bender/

but could be heavier than you need – they handle 12mm MS rounds with ease.

 

 

[DC31kParticipant @dc31k]

To amplify the above, please say the degrees of bend you need. Up to 90 degrees can perhaps use a simpler construction than up to 180 degrees.

Similarly, if all bends will have the same centreline radius, a simpler machine will suffice. For variable (or finite choice) radius bends, a different arrangement will be more suitable.

For round, solid bar, cylindrical formers are OK. If you ever want to bend tube, you need concave formers (like on a plumber’s pipe bender).

The former material neds to be chosen with a little regard to the hardness and surface finish required of the material to be bent. A black finish cylinder will be OK to bend black bar; it will not work well on polished aluminium.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Trevor, yes you need to be a little specific as to what you need, but here’s one way of doing it.

This is a sample hook that I made from 25mm EN8, in my last day job. I used to make these in batches of four, and they were about 1500mm long, and had other bars welded at intervals along the straight length.

Regards Nick.

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Material ? What shape ? How many ? what equipment is to hand ? For 8mm bar simple jigs will work ! Tell us more. Noel.

[Trevor HowleyParticipant @trevorhowley19606]

Hi , material is 8mm stainless steel,the bend to be around 90 degrees and multiple of them , it’s an ongoing project , I have access to various materials from work .

oh and the length to begin with will be around 90 to 100mm ,then bent to 90 deg.

 

if that all makes sense .

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

That does not give you much in the way of length to use as leverage. Some form of simple press tool would do the job, just a Vee shape with another mating vee that can be pushed into it, the point of the Vee being radiused to suit the internal radii of your bend. If you don’t have access to a press then something to fit into the jaws of a bench vice would do all be it slower.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

Do you have an acceptable bend radius in mind?

[Trevor HowleyParticipant @trevorhowley19606]

Not thought of a press , but gives me something else to think about .

as for the radius as tight as possible .

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

A tight bend may lead to cracking, especially if cold. Sore point at the moment as the cricket club mower height adjustment failed at such a bend and has already used up 3 hours of my time mending it.

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Doing it Cold ? or could you use heat ? Makes life MUCH easier and helps to avoid cracking. Noel.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, one of these would do the job Miracle Bender which is what I did the 10mm piece of stainless steel shown below on.

It used about a 1200mm long lever. You would get a little tighter bend on 8mm bar, but not much, doing it cold.

Regards Nick.

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Because I can and had the materials to hand when I needed to bend tube or bar I built a hydraulic bender. Bought the formers, – far to big for this job but could be scaled down – would do 2.25″ od tube and 40mm solid bar with ease. Noel.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, there is a Free Plan – Metal Bender that was described in MEW No. 18 back in 1993, which is similar to the Miracle Benders.

Regards Nick.

[Trevor HowleyParticipant @trevorhowley19606]

I would be doing it cold, the miracle bender looks ok ,as does the Free Plan metal bender , need to get my thinking cap on .

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Trevor, I forgot to say that I’ve used one of those free plan ones in my last day job. It was probably made by someone who worked there, round about the time it was published, but it did work well, although it had, had a lot of use, and probably could have done with an overhaul. The Miracle – Benders are much more robust, but they don’t come cheap, unless you get lucky.

Regards Nick.

 

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

If you are going to doing enough bar-forming to justify buying the tools, try W Neal Services Ltd.

(NB: Use the company name. If you try searching for “WNS”, which is its trade-mark, you end up with a screen-full of ads for some big India-based money-trading outfit or other under that brand!)

Although most of this Essex-based company’s products are industrial sheet-metal fabricating machines they do sell a range of small, manually-operated sheet, tube and bar forming tools at quite reasonable prices.

I know only because I have bought three such from them.

[Trevor HowleyParticipant @trevorhowley19606]

Thanks all for the info ,will take a look .

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