Hello! I am an amateur sculptor (beginner) that is using 1/4" mild
steel rods as my medium to practice with. Eventually I want to
re-create my works in stainlees steel. Presently, I use an oxy/acet
torch to heat the metal then bend it, twist it or put hard bends in it
while applying heat and holding it in the vise. Occasionally I'll get a
flat area or bump in my longer arcs/curves that is difficult to
compensate for if it happens in the wrong spot. I also want to retain
the inegrity of the rod without deforming it.
I've tried a Harbor Freight Hossfeld style bender that was too complex
and couldn't perform the long graceful arcs I desired without causing
flat spots. I know it takes practice, and I'm not adverse to that. (No
Kung Fu "Grasshopper" jokes please.) I am just looking to shorten my
learning curve by gaining knowledge of resources, books, methods, etc.
I also realize that stainless steel rods are likely to have different
bending properties than mild steel.
My workshop is quite austere with only a vise, hand tools, and a gas
torch. Any suggestions on bending these arcs or resources to help me
self inform? Thanks, Mike in St. louis













h

mclorson wrote:
Hello! I am an amateur sculptor (beginner) that is using 1/4" mild
steel rods as my medium to practice with. Eventually I want to
re-create my works in stainlees steel. Presently, I use an oxy/acet
torch to heat the metal then bend it, twist it or put hard bends in it
while applying heat and holding it in the vise. Occasionally I'll get a
flat area or bump in my longer arcs/curves that is difficult to
compensate for if it happens in the wrong spot. I also want to retain
the inegrity of the rod without deforming it.
I've tried a Harbor Freight Hossfeld style bender that was too complex
and couldn't perform the long graceful arcs I desired without causing
flat spots. I know it takes practice, and I'm not adverse to that. (No
Kung Fu "Grasshopper" jokes please.) I am just looking to shorten my
learning curve by gaining knowledge of resources, books, methods, etc.
I also realize that stainless steel rods are likely to have different
bending properties than mild steel.
My workshop is quite austere with only a vise, hand tools, and a gas
torch. Any suggestions on bending these arcs or resources to help me
self inform? Thanks, Mike in St. louis

A small bending-rolls is what you need - its a bit like a small, old
fashioned, clothes mangle. Basically there are usually 3 rollers - the
rod or bar is placed between them, like so (but the rollers touch the
bar)...

O
=======
O O


and pressure is applied to the top roller by means of a screw. One, or
better, two of the rollers are rotated by means of a crank handle to
move the bar to and fro - this makes a nice curve. Screw the roller in
further and repeat to reduce the bending radius until you get the
desired curve.

--

Regards, Gary Wooding
(To reply by email, change feet to foot in my address)

I assume you are working with hot roll. I have had good luck on
several projects by bending and clamping to the shape I want and
then heating to red heat with a torch. When I pop the clamps
loose, the rod or strap holds the shape. The form to which you
clamp needs to be able to take the heat.

Hope this helps.

(top posted for your convenience)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Keep the whole world singing . . . .
DanG (remove the sevens)




"mclorson" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello! I am an amateur sculptor (beginner) that is using 1/4"
mild
steel rods as my medium to practice with. Eventually I want to
re-create my works in stainlees steel. Presently, I use an
oxy/acet
torch to heat the metal then bend it, twist it or put hard bends
in it
while applying heat and holding it in the vise. Occasionally
I'll get a
flat area or bump in my longer arcs/curves that is difficult to
compensate for if it happens in the wrong spot. I also want to
retain
the inegrity of the rod without deforming it.
I've tried a Harbor Freight Hossfeld style bender that was too
complex
and couldn't perform the long graceful arcs I desired without
causing
flat spots. I know it takes practice, and I'm not adverse to
that. (No
Kung Fu "Grasshopper" jokes please.) I am just looking to
shorten my
learning curve by gaining knowledge of resources, books,
methods, etc.
I also realize that stainless steel rods are likely to have
different
bending properties than mild steel.
My workshop is quite austere with only a vise, hand tools, and a
gas
torch. Any suggestions on bending these arcs or resources to
help me
self inform? Thanks, Mike in St. louis













h

"mclorson" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello! I am an amateur sculptor (beginner) that is using 1/4" mild
steel rods as my medium to practice with. Eventually I want to
re-create my works in stainlees steel. Presently, I use an oxy/acet
torch to heat the metal then bend it, twist it or put hard bends in it
while applying heat and holding it in the vise. Occasionally I'll get a
flat area or bump in my longer arcs/curves that is difficult to
compensate for if it happens in the wrong spot. I also want to retain
the inegrity of the rod without deforming it.
I've tried a Harbor Freight Hossfeld style bender that was too complex
and couldn't perform the long graceful arcs I desired without causing
flat spots. I know it takes practice, and I'm not adverse to that. (No
Kung Fu "Grasshopper" jokes please.) I am just looking to shorten my
learning curve by gaining knowledge of resources, books, methods, etc.
I also realize that stainless steel rods are likely to have different
bending properties than mild steel.
My workshop is quite austere with only a vise, hand tools, and a gas
torch. Any suggestions on bending these arcs or resources to help me
self inform? Thanks, Mike in St. louis

It may seem primitive but I use car, truck and tractor rims to form steel
rod into arcs. I weld a piece of angle iron to the center of the rim in
order to clamp it in a vice. Another piece of angle welded to the outside
dia. provides a place to insert the rod to began the bending process. With
this fixture you can rotate the rod to bend arcs on different planes.
Steve Peterson

I would agree with Gary Wooding that what you need is the HF ring roller.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=36790

$55, will work on your rod, on stainless, or whatever. With this and your
bender, you will be all set.

Practice welding your rod end to end until you are comfortable with it -
this will allow you to build up your work as a collection of pieces rather
than trying to do the whole sculpture as one single thing. Kind of
analogous to trying to draw a whole sketch without lifting your pencil from
the paper - it adds unnecessary effort. Good luck! BTW, where are you
located?

"mclorson" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello! I am an amateur sculptor (beginner) that is using 1/4" mild
steel rods as my medium to practice with. Eventually I want to
re-create my works in stainlees steel. Presently, I use an oxy/acet
torch to heat the metal then bend it, twist it or put hard bends in it
while applying heat and holding it in the vise. Occasionally I'll get a
flat area or bump in my longer arcs/curves that is difficult to
compensate for if it happens in the wrong spot. I also want to retain
the inegrity of the rod without deforming it.
I've tried a Harbor Freight Hossfeld style bender that was too complex
and couldn't perform the long graceful arcs I desired without causing
flat spots. I know it takes practice, and I'm not adverse to that. (No
Kung Fu "Grasshopper" jokes please.) I am just looking to shorten my
learning curve by gaining knowledge of resources, books, methods, etc.
I also realize that stainless steel rods are likely to have different
bending properties than mild steel.
My workshop is quite austere with only a vise, hand tools, and a gas
torch. Any suggestions on bending these arcs or resources to help me
self inform? Thanks, Mike in St. louis













h

Emmo, I am in the Creve Coeur, Ladue area of St. Louis. Please
elaborate on the end to end thing. Not sure I understand what you mean.

-Mike

Emmo wrote:
I would agree with Gary Wooding that what you need is the HF ring
roller.


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=36790

$55, will work on your rod, on stainless, or whatever. With this and
your
bender, you will be all set.

Practice welding your rod end to end until you are comfortable with
it -
this will allow you to build up your work as a collection of pieces
rather
than trying to do the whole sculpture as one single thing. Kind of
analogous to trying to draw a whole sketch without lifting your
pencil from
the paper - it adds unnecessary effort. Good luck! BTW, where are
you
located?

On 9 Apr 2005 10:24:49 -0700, "mclorson"
wrote:

Hello! I am an amateur sculptor (beginner) that is using 1/4" mild
steel rods as my medium to practice with. Eventually I want to
re-create my works in stainlees steel. Presently, I use an oxy/acet
torch to heat the metal then bend it, twist it or put hard bends in it
while applying heat and holding it in the vise. Occasionally I'll get a
flat area or bump in my longer arcs/curves that is difficult to
compensate for if it happens in the wrong spot. I also want to retain
the inegrity of the rod without deforming it.
I've tried a Harbor Freight Hossfeld style bender that was too complex
and couldn't perform the long graceful arcs I desired without causing
flat spots. I know it takes practice, and I'm not adverse to that. (No
Kung Fu "Grasshopper" jokes please.) I am just looking to shorten my
learning curve by gaining knowledge of resources, books, methods, etc.
I also realize that stainless steel rods are likely to have different
bending properties than mild steel.
My workshop is quite austere with only a vise, hand tools, and a gas
torch. Any suggestions on bending these arcs or resources to help me
self inform? Thanks, Mike in St. louis


Check out the wings on my butterfly which are 3/8" Dia. and in the
2000 drop box under ma-BF. I did those by hand and foot without any
heat. Before I started thought there is no way I'm going to be
satisfied and to my amazement they came out perfect.

Maybe it is from all those curves in swimming pools. Whatever is
cheaper cold vs. hot rolled is what they are. Sorry for the night
picture, that thing is really hard to get on film.

One of these days I need to make some more for fun. The BF was the
last one , I guess I stopped cause they started getting too big and I
might end up like those people with acres of them.

mclorson wrote:

Hello! I am an amateur sculptor (beginner) that is using 1/4" mild
steel rods as my medium to practice with. Eventually I want to
re-create my works in stainlees steel. Presently, I use an oxy/acet
torch to heat the metal then bend it, twist it or put hard bends in it
while applying heat and holding it in the vise. Occasionally I'll get a
flat area or bump in my longer arcs/curves that is difficult to
compensate for if it happens in the wrong spot. I also want to retain
the inegrity of the rod without deforming it.
I've tried a Harbor Freight Hossfeld style bender that was too complex
and couldn't perform the long graceful arcs I desired without causing
flat spots. I know it takes practice, and I'm not adverse to that. (No
Kung Fu "Grasshopper" jokes please.) I am just looking to shorten my
learning curve by gaining knowledge of resources, books, methods, etc.
I also realize that stainless steel rods are likely to have different
bending properties than mild steel.
My workshop is quite austere with only a vise, hand tools, and a gas
torch. Any suggestions on bending these arcs or resources to help me
self inform? Thanks, Mike in St. louis

h

If you are not doing tight radius bends in the small rod, skip the
torch. It's costing you money to run and you can spend that better on a
ring roller and a couple mandrels to bend your stock around. You might
just as well get used to dealing with the spring back you will get from
cold bending now, as you will have a hell of a time trying to polish
stainless back to anything that looks half decent after hot forming it.
If you are bent on getting into stainless, start thinking about a tig
welder, too, for pretty welds with less of a heat affected area.

A good idea is to do some trials and record the results in a notebook.
For example, if you wrapped three turns of rod around a 10 inch diameter
form, and got a 14 inch diameter smooth loop, that would be useful to
know at some time that you wished to form that particular radius. With a
collection of forms and a suitable table or bench to work of, you could
do a lot. Compound curves can be formed of several sections of different
radius curves welded together end to end, as referred to by a previous
poster.

Jewelry makers, silver and gold smiths use a board with a series of
holes for pegs in it to wrap wire around to for various types of
filigree work, some blacksmiths have similar setups on a larger scale
for larger metal. That is one route you could explore, as it would allow
setup for producing several of a particular shape, then be knocked down
or re-arranged as required.

Anyway, just some ideas.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

Imagine that you want to make a sculpture in the form of a question mark. I
am saying that I would do this in three pieces, the curve, the right angle,
and the stem, and then weld those three pieces together end-to-end. If you
make those welds look nice, then this is a lot easier than trying to make
the whole piece at once, with a smooth curve, a right angle, and a straight
section...

As someone else pointed out, don't use heat except for welding. You don't
need it and it will discolor stainless, anneal copper, and eventually you'll
burn your hand (don't ask me how I know this...)

"mclorson" wrote in message
oups.com...
Emmo, I am in the Creve Coeur, Ladue area of St. Louis. Please
elaborate on the end to end thing. Not sure I understand what you mean.

-Mike

Emmo wrote:
I would agree with Gary Wooding that what you need is the HF ring
roller.


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=36790

$55, will work on your rod, on stainless, or whatever. With this and
your
bender, you will be all set.

Practice welding your rod end to end until you are comfortable with
it -
this will allow you to build up your work as a collection of pieces
rather
than trying to do the whole sculpture as one single thing. Kind of
analogous to trying to draw a whole sketch without lifting your
pencil from
the paper - it adds unnecessary effort. Good luck! BTW, where are
you
located?

Thanks Emmo, that makes a lot of sense. I looked at the HF ring roller
today. The mandrels are knarled. Does that mark that stock? I
wouldn't want to have 60" of curved 1/4" stock marked to the extent I'd
have to grind it back to get a smooth appearence. Anyone had experience
with that device? Thanks everyone for all the help so far.
-Mike

I have it and haven't had any problem with it marking the surface. The rod
actually goes in the groove, not on the knurled face. Get it, you need
it...

"mclorson" wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks Emmo, that makes a lot of sense. I looked at the HF ring roller
today. The mandrels are knarled. Does that mark that stock? I
wouldn't want to have 60" of curved 1/4" stock marked to the extent I'd
have to grind it back to get a smooth appearence. Anyone had experience
with that device? Thanks everyone for all the help so far.
-Mike

You can easily put a gentle curve in rod or square stock by simply
pounding on it lightly over a flat piece of wood.

John www.ghiaspecialties.com