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James Waldby[_3_] James Waldby[_3_] is offline
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Default bending aluminum frames for window screens

On Mon, 27 May 2019 17:19:56 -0400, Clare Snyder wrote:
On Mon, 27 May 2019 09:50:02 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
On Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 7:03:48 PM UTC-4, Paul P wrote:
What about filling the rails with fine dry sand packing it reasonably
tight and wrapping it around the shape you want. This normally
prevents those ugly creases that always ruin your day.


" wrote:
i have several arch windows in the front of my house. i would like
to put some Solar Screens on them but cannot find a source for the
aluminum frams with arched windows that are pre bendt into an arch.
i was quoted a price from one shop, well not really a quote, he told
me that he has to pay $70 for just the arch as he does not have a
machine for bending the frame. the aluminum frames are .020
aluminum and am willing to ruin a few to try it, does anyone know if
i can take a piece of plywood, say 2 feet by 3 feet with some
rollers on it like maybe one on bottom and two on top for
rollers(made out of metal and just push then frames of aluminum
through them a few times and bend it into an arch with enough
passes? or can someone think of another way of doing it without
paying for the $70 prebendt rails? the rails cost about $3 at home
depot and the meaterials for the whole thing will be about $100.00
as i plan on doing it all myself, but with the $70 each for the
bendt rails it will be over $400 total, i dont think this job is
worth $300 labor..... any suggestions on bending the rails?????
i tried to bend one by hand to see how far it would bend, it made
some nasty creases as the rails are hollow with a cavity infront of
it for the spline to go into...


What about installing the spline in the channel, without the screen, to
hold the shape while bending?


To do it with a roller you will need a roller formed to the profile
of the lip for the moveabler roller and some way to keep the profile
from swelling when it is bent - basically you need to clamp the frame to
maintain the maximum thickness. Would help too if you were running
annealed material, not material work-hardened by the initial
manufacturing process. If using "mill finish" you could anneal it - but
not using pre-finished.


The rails mentioned in OP probably are extrusions, likely to be
fairly soft rather than work-hardened. Annealing might not make
any difference. That aside, the bend probably is in the plane of
the widest faces of the rails. Without the profile shape holding
that you mention, the success rate might be closer to 0% than 20%

There's a reason the darn things are $70 a bend. With your $100 bodged
together roller bender your success rate MIGHT be 20% - one in 5
successful. Doesn't take long to make the ready-bent ones look like a
bargoon.


--
jiw