I would like to neatly bend some 7/8 inch wide 1/8 inch thick steelflat bar. The bend point need not be a precise location, the ends can be cutto suit. The bend needs to be well aligned. The bend is 45° andreasonably accurate, reasonably small as possible radius. Of coursestrength is important. Best or cheapest way to put a small radius bend in 7/8 inch wide 1/8inch thick steel flat bar? I would rather not by a tool, butwhatever. Will this or anything cheaper do... will look for something smaller. Don't need to bend 4 inch wide1/4 inch thick steel.

I need only four pieces. Conceivably, I could do this one more timein the future.What would be a suitable vice for using a vice brake to safely bend1/8 inch thick 1 inch wide steel flat bar? Whatever sort of commonsteel.This looks tight enough (the two pieces on the bottom)... was done using a 5 inch vice brake, I suppose the 4 inchversion will do as well.

On Wed, 24 Apr 2019 13:25:47 -0500, Terry Coombs

On Thu, 25 Apr 2019 22:07:00 -0700, Larry Jaques snipped-for-privacy@That was acetylene!

I've luck in the past with just heating where I want the bend with a MAPgas torch and carefully bending it in a bench vice. You'll want to bepretty quick about it once it's in the vice because the vice will sinkthe heat from the bar. You can also carefully use a medium sized ballpeen hammer and gently persuade the bar into the bend you want on thelittle "anvil" on the back of the vice.John Doe snipped-for-privacy@message.header wrote:

Easiest/cheapest way/tool to bend small steel flat bar?

Apr 22, 2019 Last reply: 7 years ago 45 Replies

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Terry Coombs 7 years ago

I just have one question . How are you going to hold your fixture still while you're trying to bend your pieces ? And one suggestion . Bolt that thing together before you try to bend anything unless you like pieces of flying steel coming at you at high velocity . Super/Crazy glues rely on a closely fitted joint of uniform clearance . Common bar stock ain't gonna be that uniform . Unless you can skim it with your milling machine ... Oh wait , you don't have any machinery ... bummer .

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John Doe 7 years ago

A perpetual aging troll that cannot think outside of the box, one reason this group has turned to s*it...

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Larry Jaques 7 years ago

The best way to handle trolls is to totally ignore them. They _hate_ that.

- It will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins. --Benjamin Franklin

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Gerry 7 years ago

That was acetylene!

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downtime null 7 years ago

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John Doe 7 years ago

The vise brake works well, after reshaping and smoothing the Chinese-made POS. It's a very sharp bend, just what I wanted. I also rounded one of the plungers/blades to roughly 0.125" semicircle.

I practiced on some 0.125" x 1.5" aluminum flat bar, one half the thickness and twice the width of the material to be used.

I figured the 0.25" flat bar to be used would be more difficult to bend. One can figure that by envisioning the material to be bent becoming thicker and narrower.

However... 0.25" x 0.75" (6061) aluminum flat bar just snaps when it gets to about 20°! The second attempt used a blade that was not rounded, but still sharp, same result.

So I will try 0.125" "low carbon" steel flat bar, although I would like something lighter.

Is stronger aluminum more brittle than 6061? But I'm not sure the vise brake is even compatible with aluminum, given the tight radius of the bend.

Low carbon steel it is (at least until something else is ordered).

I wrote:

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