DIYbanter - View Single Post - Bending 1/8 inch thick 7075-T6 aluminum

David Billington

wrote:
On May 24, 7:41 pm, MrFightGuy wrote:

I believe HF sells a roller setup that will do what you want for a
reasonable price .
--
Snag
Learning keeps
you young !

Thanks, yeah, but I'm trying to keep this purchase under $300. The HF
bress brake/slip rollers are way out of my range, and their 12" slip
roller is way too small for what I'm trying to accomplish.

I think Snag is suggesting the English wheel sold by HF. An English
wheel is what I would try to produce a domed shield. Maybe someone
here that has an English wheel will step up and relate their
experiences. Or maybe someone would be willing to let you ship them
some aluminum to see how well their English wheel works.

Dan

I would expect the HF one to bit a bit lightweight for doing 1/8"
aluminium even in a soft condition. I have a much heavier wheeling
machine and that did dish some 5mm 1050 but it was hard work and the
piece required quite a dish so in the end I just resorted to using a
domed former to push the aluminium into a piece of pipe with a piece of
5mm UHMWPE between the pipe and aluminium to spread the load and prevent
marring of the surface. This was done in a fly press so blows could be
done quickly and controlled and allowed the dished pieces to done quite
fast. Once I got it set-up and done a practice piece I could do a 250mm
blank to a 250mm radius in about 5 minutes with repeated blow going
around the piece. Not a job I would want to do with a hydraulic press
due to their speed.