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bending vertical blind to fit round bay window

Hi, this is my first post to this group. I am in the UK. I want some vertical blinds to fit round a cureved bay window. This price for these is many times the straight versions. One of the web sites said they had a "custom bending process" to produce the rails. I guess the rails are aluminium U-channel, with a slight lip on the open end to support the sliders that carry the blades. The rail needs to be bent with the radius on one of the sides, with the U upside-down when fitted. Is it possible to do such bending myself ? The inside of the channel would need to be smooth so the sliders to not bind when the blinds are opened and closed. Thanks, Simon.

Reply to
Simon
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Does this also assume the blind's slats will bend? I don't see how you'll bend the slats. Any curved-blade slat (like a tape measure blade) will tend to crimp at one spot, rather than bend smoothly.

Or are the slats straight, and only the header bent? If that's the case, how do you fill up the circle segment between the crown and ends of the header?

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Read the word "vertical" again. It means the same in the UK as in the USofA.

Reply to
jtaylor

I just got off the phone with a good friend that owns a large company that manufactures blinds. He said they order the channel extruded to the specs. per job in these situations from the extruder. The equipment to do this is too expensive even though they do many curved jobs a week. Sorry this isn't better news.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Ooops! (blush!) Yeah... I guess they wouldn't have to bend _much_, would they?

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Greetings Simon, Yes, you can do this yourself. But it may be cheaper to take it to a sheet metal shop where they could use a "shrinker" to shrink the inside wall of the curve. This will force the rest of the channel to follow. The only problem is that the finish on the aluminum will be marred. This will then need to be either hidden with a wood strip, which looks better than aluminum in any case. Or you will need to sand away the marks which will take a long time. ERS

Reply to
Eric R Snow

I'm thinking that perhaps there's another way entirely. If you don't need to actually slide all the blades to one side or the other, can you build the rotating mechanism for each blade in place? You can either spend more money or more time, but if you have the time to spare, this might be an option.

Reply to
carl mciver

Thanks for all the responses.

Can anyone explain the "shrinking" process works. Can most metal shops do this, and do you end up with a smooth inside surface ?

I could make a blind myself if the sweeping was not required, just the turning. The trouble is if the blades are only a little out of step, the whole thing looks awful. The standard cog/slider mechanism is very good at keeping things aligned.

Thanks, Simon.

Reply to
Simon

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