On May 26, 9:59*am, "Steve B" wrote:
I want to make some half cylinder wall sconces for outdoor lighting. *Maybe
even some full tubes.

Can I get a roller that will do that like the cheapie ring rollers at HF?

Can I make some? *I have a BUNCH of rollers that come from those material
handling rolling frames that are around 1.5" OD, and can use one for about
12" materials, and weld a few together for more.

Or I could buy some pipe and make a roller. *Does that require two or three
pieces to roll?
...
Steve

A series of shallow straight bends doesn't look bad and may be easier
to do. I'd clamp some steel angle to the top of a sawhorse, corner up,
for the lower die and saw a wide groove in the edge of a 2x4 for the
upper one. That way you can line up pencil marks for the bends with
the corner of the angle. Uprights clamped to the sawhorse to guide the
upper die would help a lot. Use a coffee can or such as the gage to
get all the bends about equal.

I bought a 30" 3-in-1 machine because I don't have space for separate
shear and finger brake.:
http://image.made-in-china.com/4f0j0...ng-Machine.jpg

The rolls are about 1.5" diameter, not quite stiff enough to roll full-
width 1/16" 6061 aluminum properly. Two rolls squeeze together to grab
the work and drive it over the third, which you raise or lower
experimentally to force the desired curvature. On this machine the
rolls run in bushing sleeves which the adjusting screws push against.
The sleeves slide in milled slots. It wouldn't be hard to make one if
you omit the roll release for removing closed cylinders.

This is a 40" brake I made to bend aluminum to cover my old wood
window frames:
https://picasaweb.google.com/KB1DAL/...33136395165634
And after making more convenient clamping cams:
https://picasaweb.google.com/KB1DAL/...33137678036386

When I showed it to a friend he said he had a 10' Tapco siding brake I
could borrow!

jsw