I need to bend some 1/2 inch bar material at home. Roughly to a diameter of 1 and 1/16 inch but it does not need to be that exact. I had the bright idea of using two sockets in my little vice and heating with a torch but none of my sockets are exactly the same width and I could not tignten my vice with out slipping.
Any advice?
Drill a couple of 1/2" holes in a plate and bolt the sockets to it. Put the plate in your vice.
If you are trying to bend it into a "U", then your best option is heat.
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Note that he does not say what *kind* of bar.
For steel bar, yes, heat is probably the best aid. For aluminum or brass, you can use the heat to anneal the metal, but you should not try to *bend* it while it is that hot, because it gets "hot short" -- it crumbles when worked while hot.
As for something like nitrocellulose bars -- I leave that to your imagination. :-)
Good Luck, DoN.
Questions: Is your material steel? What final shape do you want? "U"-shape? Circle? You wrote that you have a "torch," is this an oxy-acetylene torch?
Yes that is the torch I have. I am trying to bend a 1/2 inch round bar to a "hook" to hang on something.
It is steel. Cold rolled I think.
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