Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
|
Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work. |
Reply |
|
LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
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. |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
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. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
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. -- -------------------------------------------------------------- Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes Doubt yourself, and the real world will eat you alive The world doesn't revolve around you, it revolves around me No skeletons in the closet; just decomposing corpses -------------------------------------------------------------- Dependence is Vulnerability: -------------------------------------------------------------- "Open the Pod Bay Doors please, Hal" "I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.." |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
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. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
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. |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
New metal spinning DVD due for release | Woodturning | |||
Metal spinning DVD due for release | Metalworking | |||
Earth Bondng | UK diy | |||
metal tubes | Metalworking | |||
bending sheet metal into a cylinder | Metalworking |