Bending Metal Cheaply?
 

I found this on Harbor Freight
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=39103
I realize this is not a nice metal bender, but I'm poor and I'm not looking
for anything great. I'm dealing with usually 24 guage Stainless Steel or
Aluminum. I know that a lot of products from Harborfreight aren't worth the
money (Welder's come to mind, know this one from experience), but this
seemed simple enough and I don't have any serious uses for this other than
bending metal at 0-90 degrees so I thought this might work. Can anyone think
of a reason why this wouldn't work for what I'm trying to do? Thanks for any
help.

-Nebruin
Metal Noob.

Not a 'spert, but the problem might not be so much w/ HF as w/ the
technique, esp. w/ pita stuff like SS. A lot will depend on the radius of
your bend, and proly on the type of SS itself. Mercifully, you have thin
gauge, altho you didn't specify diam.

Prof'l bending places use all kinds of ancillary stuff, like external
springs, internal sand (kinking), heat, mebbe tension, who knows what else.

You can't generally bend stuff like electricians bend their EMT tubing,
unless the radius is much larger. And even w/ that mat'l designed for
relatively tight radius bends, you see crinkling/kinking, etc.

Again, a lot depends on the radius of the bend.
Oh, and HF-quality proly don't help, either, altho I've been buyin a lot of
stuff from them, and if I don't raise my expectations too high, I'm usually
not too disappointed. Sorta haveta to know what you can "get away with",
with them. Yeah, and welders is proly not one of them. A bender you can
proly get by with...
----------------------------
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll
"Zipper" zipper777ATcomcastDOTnet wrote in message
...
I found this on Harbor Freight
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=39103
I realize this is not a nice metal bender, but I'm poor and I'm not
looking for anything great. I'm dealing with usually 24 guage Stainless
Steel or Aluminum. I know that a lot of products from Harborfreight aren't
worth the money (Welder's come to mind, know this one from experience),
but this seemed simple enough and I don't have any serious uses for this
other than bending metal at 0-90 degrees so I thought this might work. Can
anyone think of a reason why this wouldn't work for what I'm trying to do?
Thanks for any help.

-Nebruin
Metal Noob.

You will find the folding type brakes don't produce as tight a radius as
the die-forming type. It's unlikely this little brake can bend 16 gauge
with any uniformity. And it won't do box bends. But for $22.,what the
heck.
JR
Dweller in the cellar

Zipper wrote:
I found this on Harbor Freight
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=39103
I realize this is not a nice metal bender, but I'm poor and I'm not looking
for anything great. I'm dealing with usually 24 guage Stainless Steel or
Aluminum. I know that a lot of products from Harborfreight aren't worth the
money (Welder's come to mind, know this one from experience), but this
seemed simple enough and I don't have any serious uses for this other than
bending metal at 0-90 degrees so I thought this might work. Can anyone think
of a reason why this wouldn't work for what I'm trying to do? Thanks for any
help.

-Nebruin
Metal Noob.




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Doubt yourself, and the real world will eat you alive
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It'll proly do the alum, depending on the hardness. electricians bend alum
electrical tube as well, about 1/8 wall.
----------------------------
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll
"Proctologically Violated©®" wrote in message
...
Not a 'spert, but the problem might not be so much w/ HF as w/ the
technique, esp. w/ pita stuff like SS. A lot will depend on the radius of
your bend, and proly on the type of SS itself. Mercifully, you have thin
gauge, altho you didn't specify diam.

Prof'l bending places use all kinds of ancillary stuff, like external
springs, internal sand (kinking), heat, mebbe tension, who knows what
else.

You can't generally bend stuff like electricians bend their EMT tubing,
unless the radius is much larger. And even w/ that mat'l designed for
relatively tight radius bends, you see crinkling/kinking, etc.

Again, a lot depends on the radius of the bend.
Oh, and HF-quality proly don't help, either, altho I've been buyin a lot
of stuff from them, and if I don't raise my expectations too high, I'm
usually not too disappointed. Sorta haveta to know what you can "get away
with", with them. Yeah, and welders is proly not one of them. A bender
you can proly get by with...
----------------------------
Mr. P.V.'d
formerly Droll Troll
"Zipper" zipper777ATcomcastDOTnet wrote in message
...
I found this on Harbor Freight
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=39103
I realize this is not a nice metal bender, but I'm poor and I'm not
looking for anything great. I'm dealing with usually 24 guage Stainless
Steel or Aluminum. I know that a lot of products from Harborfreight
aren't worth the money (Welder's come to mind, know this one from
experience), but this seemed simple enough and I don't have any serious
uses for this other than bending metal at 0-90 degrees so I thought this
might work. Can anyone think of a reason why this wouldn't work for what
I'm trying to do? Thanks for any help.

-Nebruin
Metal Noob.

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 17:10:07 -0500, "Zipper"
zipper777ATcomcastDOTnet wrote:

I found this on Harbor Freight
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=39103
I realize this is not a nice metal bender, but I'm poor and I'm not looking
for anything great. I'm dealing with usually 24 guage Stainless Steel or
Aluminum. I know that a lot of products from Harborfreight aren't worth the
money (Welder's come to mind, know this one from experience), but this
seemed simple enough and I don't have any serious uses for this other than
bending metal at 0-90 degrees so I thought this might work. Can anyone think
of a reason why this wouldn't work for what I'm trying to do? Thanks for any
help.

-Nebruin
Metal Noob.

It should bend 24-gage aluminum or stainless with no problem.

I have the 30" version of this bender and it is quite capable. I prefer
these steel versions to the more expensive aluminum version that some
companies offer. The bender is more versatile than might be expected. It
is slow to setup each bend, since the clamping bar is loose and has to
be positioned and held down with C clamps. You could easily rig some
guide rods to keep it in place if you wanted. But, this style of clamp
bar has a bonus, it allows you to perform box bends by just substituting
a shorter clamp bar. I use 1/4" x 1 1/2" flat stock, cut to the length
needed to fit inside the side bends. With this method you can bend boxes
with the sides of any height.

Dennis