Hi All,
I have some friends that are making old style sub-scale wheelbarrows. They need a simple method to bend the rims. the material is 3/4 x 1/8 flat steel. The circle must be quite good, as it will be butt welded and heated to be shrunk over the rest of the wheel. Thanks, Jim
When making the occasional circle like this I open my vise to a suitable
You have not said how big the circle is. Usually to bend a perect circle you have to manually bend the last few inches of each end to the correct curve, eoither with a press or some simple bending jig. TRhen you feed it through the roller.
Since what you are doing is so small you should just buy one of the small $50 ring rollers being sold by Harbor frieght.
Or if you don't want a set of rollers, farm this part of the process out to a shop that has a set of rollers. Sounds like a six pack kind of job.
Hi again,
Find a drum or something of the right diameter, and use a long piece of the iron and wrap around the drum coil-spring fashion, with each wrap up against the last. With several coils held tight on the drum, mark a line down the assembly, remove the coil, and cut the lines. You'll have rings with a bit of spiral that is easily straightened, and the ends will marry up with no straight sections.
Dan
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