I wish to thank Ron for coming over and operating the camera. A round of applause please!
If there's an interest I can maybe do a little photo-tell on how to make your own square tubing bender. The benefit of using bent square tubing versus round tubing is that you can attach braces and covering material to it so easily. Then you can fab up that rack for the four wheeler or tractor all by yourself to haul that old ice chest that no one makes a carrier that will fit it. You could fab up that rack to hold the garbage cans up high enough so that the dogs don't scatter it all over the street. You could make that bracket to hold some of that stuff on the floor of the garage up on the wall. That way you'd have room for more stuff on the floor of the garage. A neat project would be to make a green house without one weld! It can be done. The bender can be made without a welder. It can be used to fabricate all kinds of neat things and all without a welder. But I must warn you. If you start fabbing things up you're gonna want to learn to weld. Just a hazard of making things. Give me a couple of days to work it in. I'm behind the eight ball on getting some work out. But knowing me I'd guess that there will come that moment when I have to get away from the project at hand and do something real fun. Making a bender is real fun. Making a bender for square is real easy. Making one for round, that's involved. I'm not so sure we should go there. But if I was wanting a bender for round, I think it could be done. The hardest thing about making a bender is figuring out exactly what's happening when the bend is being made. Once we figure that out then we can allow and adjust to accommodate it. We'll do it. We had some success. And we had a failure or two. The biggest failure was a bad floppy. I take my photos with a Sony FD97 and instead of using the memory stick I use the floppys. So the first picture that showed exactly how I had it all clamped in will come up in image preview but I can't resize it with any of my photo software (three of'em) or get it to upload full size to the photo site I use. Bad floppy combined with probably a bit of operator error. I'll do it again tomorrow and I'll use another brand of floppy and try to make it as clear as I can. This first picture was taken after I'd removed the clamps. This is a piece of one inch sixteen gauge tubing. Sixteen gauge usually equates out to about sixty five thousandths for you decimal types. What I did is take this piece of steel that I salvaged off of a tank and tacked it underneath to the I beam I use for a welding table. I then laid the piece of tubing beside the flange I'd just tacked on. I marked the outside of the tube on the I beam. I then welded a short piece of three quarter inch bar stock along that mark. I then laid the piece of galvanized tubing back in it's place. The piece is was about seven feet long. I made sure it laid down flat and then I used two clamps to hold it firmly to the three quarter bar stock. I then gripped the other end firmly and with a constant smooth pressure I pulled the piece around the flange. You can see the results.
This is another picture of the piece and the bender. There is some deformation. Sometimes when the bend is extremely tight I will help with the deformation of the tubing. It's going to deform. So what I will do is weld in a little piece of round stock in the middle of the piece I'm using as the die to wrap around. What this does is it forces it to deform where I want it to instead of where it wants to deform. I'm editing this to point out that corkscrewed piece of two inch (2 3/8) schedule forty in the background. I was having trouble bending some pieces without them twisting a bit on me. So when I got done with my pieces I sat down with Miss Hossfield we had us a dancing contest. I figured out how far she wanted to twist the piece and so I pushed her a tad farther. We ended up with that piece. I've had some ideas for that piece of pipe. There's a part of me that would like to make me a nice chair that I could kick back for one of my catnaps. I'd use that piece for the back. I've thought about putting in a spring inside one end and sitting all that on a shaft in the ground. Then on top mount a mail box. That way when someone hit the mail box it's twist out of the way and then come back. Of course I've already done that by using a piece of two and three eighths for the inside shaft of a mail box post. Then I put a two and seven eighths over it. The trick is having a grease zert on the two and seven eighths above the cut. The cut is about thirty degrees angle across the two and seven eighths. The lowest part of the cut faces the street. The part below the cut is welded to the two and three eighths. The upper part of the two and seven eighths above the cut is attached to the mail box. If it's greased up when the mailbox is hit the upper part will twist. But it will always come back to face the street because of the thirty degree cut. I degress. But I just like that piece of tweaked pipe. Can't explain it except maybe that dance with Miss Hossfield meant more than I thought it would
This is the ultimate simple bending jig for half inch and three quarter inch square tubing. It consists of a piece of four inch o.d. tubing welded to a piece of six inch channel. Underneath the channel is welded a piece of bar stock. The reason for the bar stock is to have something for the vise to clutch. I have made these out of angle iron and then of course the vise clutches the down leg of the angle iron. What is not obvious from this picture is that the stub that is holding the half inch square tubing is cut at a light angle. The reason for this is that makes and edge that bites into the tubing when it wants to slip. When you get as old as I am your skin will get the sheen too. So don't laugh. Yours might get even more sheen. That wouldn't be good.
Here's the thing on the square tubing. It will bend nice and pretty. But, and this butt is Rosanne Barr dimensions, if it slips while pulling the bend it will collapse. Uh oh, and over again. What I'd do if I was wanting what you are would be to build me a pattern out of say quarter by one and a half on a table. Then I'd clamp my square tubing firmly, picture the previously mentioned butt in your mind for reference on just how tight to clamp, at one end. Then I'd pull my bend. I have a roller. Chances are you can stop in at an iron shop and have them roll it for a twelve pack or so. But with it rolled you're gonna have the welds at the end of the roll where it meets the horizontal piece. I've also done it with heat. By that I mean heating and cooling to shrink one side. That works but only if the bend is slow and you've got plenty of patience. I'll be posting some pictures of some hand rail we're doing. I'm bending half by one and a half bar stock the hard way with just a little jig I made and a three pound hammer. It won't be long and I'll have a Popeye right side and Olive Oil left side. But it works fine, just hard work and practice. I can do that. Don't laugh, it isn't polite. But, and this butt is of proverbial Barr proportions, I just do it. First and foremost is it's almost impossible to have perfect duplication of bends because of the composition of the metal involved. So accepting that and the fact that the mind of the viewer will compensate for small imperfections, again, just do it. Aluminum tube of about hundred and twenty thousandths will be the most forgiving and easiest to form. I would lay out a radius on the work bench. This might be anything from taking the end of a cable reel and using it to making a metal ring off of the pattern of a automobile wheel. Just something with a large radius. You want this firmly attached to the work bench. Then at a point that allows you the most room you put in a pin to work the tubing against. It would look something like this ). The dot being your pin. Now what I use is my hip. Sounds silly but you have a lot more control with your hip versus your arms when it comes to making repeated consistant moves. I'd wedge the aluminum between the ) and the . I'd then push against the ) The amount you push is miniscule, a lot less than what you'd think you'd need. The more less is more better. Then I'd move the tubing about three inches and then push again trying to do exactly the same amount, the reason for the hip instead of the arm. Repeat as needed. What I'd do is plan on when purchasing the material to allow for some incredible edible, learning curve consumable you might say. I'd play with this piece to get a feel for just how hard to push to get the curve I want without making it obviously a series of straight lines tied together. Then I'd do one. First I'd bend the big curve. Turn the tubing around and pushing against the curve I just made I'd do the smaller tighter radius. I'd do the other. They don't match. That's when you bend this here or that there this one or the other until you have a matched close enough pair. A couple of things will interest you about this process. First thing it is a little like investing in your retirement. If you look at just one segment it don't look like you've done squat. But when you look at it cumalatively you've done a lot. The second thing is you will find a rythm for working the bend that will take over and the next thing you know you'll be as surprised as the wife about how easy it was and how nice it looks. It wasn't until listening to a professional athelete describe being in the zone where it's all reaction and oneness with the event that I understood what was going on when I work. I become part of what's happening. I'm along for the ride I guess would be the best way to describe it. Even though I'm behind the wheel and it's my foot on the accelerator I'm still just a cog on the gear in the big picture. If you can tig aluminum you have been there. You might not have recognised it but you were there. When you're doing the bend the same thing happens and it is fun. There's a set of gates in Farmersville Texas that you'd like. They are nine feet tall where they meet in the middle. It's a pair covering a thirty eight foot opening. The top rail is two by four fourteen gauge rectangular tubing. They've got the kind of curve you want. But instead of filagree I used a custom design between the top and second horizontal rails. The customer had foolishly told me to just do what I do for design. They just wanted something nice. Easy for them to say. They are a drilling company with the big pier drilling rigs. As I was looking at the finished frame I still hadn't found the design for the middle. The traditional scrolly stuff just didn't seem appropriate. Then I noticed an auger bit in my yard in profile. That design is so simple. It's like holding your hand with our fingers tight together like a flag on each side of vertical piece. So that's what I did. I cut out a shishkeepotfull of these pieces and welded them to three quarter verticals and you talk about being lucky? I got lucky. Now to the point of that story. Think about how you would bend two by four fourteen gauge rectangular tubing without using brute force. I cheated. I took out the portaband and started making cuts. Everyone else I've ever seen use cuts to make a bend have cut the inside of the radius. Me being me I did the outside. I'd make a series of cuts then pull my bend where the gap would be about twice to three times max the width of the saw blade each cut. Now it doesn't sound like much. But think of giving your kids advice on retirement. For the long sweeping bend I put the cuts farther apart and then for the tight bend coming back I put them much closer together. Once I had two pieces almost exactly alike, nothing's perfect, I check all the time. I then tacked across the saw cuts. Then it was serious welding one oh one until it was done two oh two followed by grinding three oh three with polishing four oh four on it's butt saying "faster". Now I understand some folks read that, draw a picture in their mind, and go off in a wonder land. Wondering why oh why would anyone do so much work. You have to had been there. There when it was just an impossible dream. There when it was a maybe. There when it might work. There when it should work. There when it's gonna work. There when by gawd it did work. There when the customer was admiring it and then asked how it was done. There when I explained that it was really only a thing and not really that hard at all. This is the finished bend. Please note that the vise has the old two inch heavy wall square tubing. And that it's slid into a receiver on the welding table. That table btw weighs over eight hundred pounds. It's a good friend of mine. Also note the smoothness of the bend. And believe it or not that piece is really quite strong. I've got pieces like this strewn around the shop that I've used for oversized S hooks to hold this or that here or there. A little imagination and another bend or two and you've got something to attach to the wall of the barn to hold the boss's plants. Boss's always like things that hold plants.
Another bend on the same piece of tubing getting ready to start. Don't stare at the thumb. It's a little shy. Mostly it's shy of the pad that used to be there before a conflict over position was lost with a shaper blade in a table saw.
That's a real start on a chain
This is the same bending die. But we're going to bend three quarter inch tubing. Please note that we're at another table with another receiver hitch thingy dingy.
It's so simple it almost makes you cry
I know the place is messy. But I'm trying to cultivate the idea that I'm an eccentric. I understand it helps with the police. If you don't think that's fun taking an old piece of scrap rusty tubing and making it into something pretty then I suspect there's no hope for you. I love it. Sometimes the real fun is finding the thing that will give such a gem purpose
Note the white line I made with the soapstone. Note the placement of the line. I made two lines eighteen inches apart
Now look at the other line. Also you might notice my little tool I found to help out with the leverage for doing the second bend. Yup, it's another piece of scrap I picked up off the ground. It's a piece of sold bar half inch that was just begging to help.
It's a little off. I'd guess yours truly wasn't paying too close attention when I did the second bend. Of course it could also be I haven't got the two bends perfectly parallel or square. But this could easily be that piece that you had in mind for that rack to hold the cooler on that cart the lab is gonna have to drag if it's going fishing with you ever again.
Now this one is with the mini Hossfield knockoff my bud Ryley made for me. BTW I talked to him yesterday and chances are most likely he's lurking already. And he's supposed to be checking with Mohammed about selling his little benders via TBN. It'd be a match made in heaven. Ya'll, Ryley's benders, projects. Ya'll would be in my world. Please note this is that leverage piece that was so helpfull. It's half inch bar stock, solid.
Here's another shot of bending the solid bar. Ya'll need to try this. If you're still capable of having a thrill, this'll thrill ya. Please note my sure cut I made for coping three inch (3 1/2) pipe with a torch in the background. Yeah, that little silver looking thing with the funny cut. What happens is when you're welding up pipe and you have to weld them you need to cope or knotch the end. To make it easier on an old man I do a piece that I can slip over the pipe that needs to be coped. Alright, if I need to slide it over a pipe I can can't just slip over an end what I do is cut one side lengthwise with a saw. Once it's cut I weld a cheap old butt hinge across that cut. First you cut it then you weld a piece across the cut so it won't go anywhere. Then I make another cut a hundred and eighty degrees from the first cut. Now the piece opens up. Slick, huh?
Here's the bar bent, and bent again.
I want you to meet my girl, Miss Hossfield. She's a miracle worker. I know the place is a mess. But that's okay. When you gotta worry is when they don't know.
I have an antique wagon wheel roller. It's manual but it is fun and look what it can do
This is that piece we bent yesterday to get this whole subject started. I've got it set up to bend it again. Please note how I've got it clamped. Clamping is important if you don't have the angle of the piece holding it sharpened just right. Sometimes it's important then too.
Just an old man trying, very trying, some folks say. We don't pay much attention to them.
This piece kinked. It slipped. Slipping is bad. It don't matter how hard you tried, it slips, it's bad.