guided bend testing equipment

Date 08-25-2009 15:59

I recently recieved my CWI. I have been considering doing qualification tests at the house, on the side.
I am setup well to do this, as far as codebooks, welding equ. etc. I do not have a setup for guided bend tests yet. Obviously, there are several options for bending equipment, but i want to keep my cost very minimal as i don't expect to perform alot of tests at this point. I can't justify an expensive hydraulic machine for the house. Does anyone have pics or ideas for a cheap setup. I could build one. I thought maybe someone has done this and might have a good idea. I have an idea of what i would like to build, but i was curious to see what others have used. I can tell from some of the posts, there are some more experienced CWI's on here.

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 08-25-2009 16:05

Nothing fancy to look at, just a hand operated bottle jack, and the plunger / die built from the D1.1 Clause 4 dimns.

By js55

Date 08-25-2009 16:35

Isn't this deja vu?

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 08-25-2009 16:53

LOL yeah, there are several threads with pics of homemade bend equipment in them, and these two pics are probably in most, if not all, of them.

By ssbn727 (*****)

Date 08-25-2009 18:35

Hi John!

Do you mean like this one which just about sums it up in a nutshell - don't you think??? LOL ;) :) :)

http://www.aws.org/cgi-bin/mwf/topic_show.pl?pid=134125;hl=

Respectfully,
Henry

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 08-25-2009 19:12

That one will do Henry....several designs in that thread.

By swsweld (****)

Date 08-25-2009 20:01 Edited 08-25-2009 20:09

We have a machinist next door to our shop and we often weld for him and he machines for us. So he machined a test jig almost identical to the one in D1.1. Worked great. We recently had a major clean up (scrap metal, junk, etc) thrown away. I wrote on all sides of the test jig "SAVE-DO NOT THROW AWAY" I work in the field mostly so I can't keep an eye on the shop helpers. The next time I needed it I couldn't find it. I found the culprit that tossed it. He now takes required reading classes. Guess I should have wrote" PLEASE SAVE-PLEASE DO NOT THROW AWAY". I should have been more polite or wrote "throw this junk away".

So I made two just like the design in your pic. They are just as good and less than half the cost of the fancy one. Thanks for the design. Are royalty checks required?

By OBEWAN

Date 08-25-2009 19:08

I used one that looked just like that when I worked as a CAWI/QC1 for one of the largest steel companies in the US. We had about 300 weldors certified to D1.1 using that thing. It really was just as fast as an automatic one and the workout from pumping the jack did not do me any harm at all. LOL

By stickwelder (*)

Date 08-25-2009 21:15

Thanks for the pics and input. The add'l thread gave me some good insight also.
I plan to build one very similar to the picture. This is close to what i had in mind but simpler. This has obviously come up before, but i am new to the forum and didn't locate the earlier conversation.

thanks again.

By paul prill (*)

Date 08-25-2009 18:42

How about insurance?