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Up Topic Welding Industry / Welding Fundamentals / Portable bender
- - By aevald (*****) Date 10-11-2007 18:57
Hello everyone, I'm getting pumped about figuring out some of this digital photography stuff so please forgive me for all of you out there who already have this down pat. A number of years ago I had the need to bend flat bar for the fabrication of roof access ladders and other items that required bending. When you make the offset bends for the side bars it can get challenging at times having to deal with the length of these pieces. I came up with this to make it a bit easier. The top die for this tool is made from A2 tool steel in the annealed state and after machining can be hardened and tempered if needed, the bottom die is made from 4140 and could also be hardened and tempered if desired. The side pieces and other parts are made from cold-rolled key stock. The cylinder is an Enerpac 15 ton ram which can be powered by a hand pump or an electric or air operated pump. I have it clamped in the vice in these pictures, but it can also be positioned on the part as needed. With the design here the legs that you are bending can be any length so long as the bend has at least one leg that is 7/8" to allow for the width of the bottom die. The tightest that I can bend two legs up to still clear the top die is 1 3/4", a couple of the pictures that I have included show this shape. Hope this gives some of you ideas and I also hope it prompts others to include some of their creations. Best regards, Allan
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Parent - - By ctacker (****) Date 10-11-2007 23:23
those are great items aevald, but one also needs to be reminded of using rams and such,make sure they cant shoot a missle out of a badly designed fixture.
When i first started out i seen a guy weld a round bar on the edge of a plate to give a bend a radius, needles to say when he put pressure on it the round shot out of the press and shattered all the bones in his face, he never did go back in a steel shop after that!
Parent - By aevald (*****) Date 10-11-2007 23:47
Hello ctacker, thanks for that reminder, you are absolutely correct with the words of caution. As with anything, a bit of common sense and a realization of the dangers that can come from a particular situation are certainly important. An understanding of physics, to some degree, will help everyone to be a little bit safer when working in the presence of machinery. Regards, Allan
Parent - - By DaveBoyer (*****) Date 10-12-2007 04:39
I was streightening a bent section of heavy walled tube in a manual hydraulic press one time, and it came loose. I had deflected it several inches and had quite a few tons of pressure on it. It broke My jaw in 2 places, that hurt like all hell. I was the shift foreman, and this happened at about midnight on a friday. I stayed and closed up at 2:30 AM, as there wasn't anybody else to cover. We were working 4 10s at the time, and I got My jaw wired Monday. Tuesday I was back at work, but not talking much. This was a no lost time accident. I have a lot more respect working around anything with stored energy now than I did before that episode.
Parent - - By ctacker (****) Date 10-12-2007 04:53
OUCH, you sound like myself in the sense that you gotta keep going, about 20 yrs ago i was rolling a 3/8 4x10x40' tube with a pipe made into a beam roller,it did a double roll on me before i could pull it off and the end of that pipe hit me in the temple, i picked myself up and brushed off the dust. went back to work and sometime later my boss walked up and freaked out,i had a huge dent on the side of my face that needed surgery to fix, broke my zygomatic arch in a few places!
Parent - - By johnnyh (***) Date 10-12-2007 18:12
Allan, you should start a thread on injuries and near-misses.  You never know, an accident could be prevented if someone remembers reading about it on this forum.  And you have the magic touch when it comes to starting threads. -john
Parent - - By aevald (*****) Date 10-12-2007 18:53
Hello johnnyh, I would tend to agree with your suggestion here. I do know that the forum administrators do not wish to have the forum used to promote any specific safety regimens due to liability issues. As far as describing dangers, accidents that have happened, and opening the eyes of individuals to pay better attention to these sorts of things, I believe that would be deemed acceptable. That's a great suggestion, I hope others will take an active part in promoting it. Best regards, Allan
Parent - By jwright650 (*****) Date 10-12-2007 20:14
That's right Allen.
Up Topic Welding Industry / Welding Fundamentals / Portable bender

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