How to bend 3/4" stainless steel 36 inch rod

I was hoping to use a 5' pipe on one end and a vise on the other with a 3 1/2" pipe (it has to end to be a 3 1/2" inner diameter U-bolt). It'll be 316 grade steel for marine environment use.

Can I cold bend it? Is a 5' pipe enough leverage?

Should I heat it with a welder's propane torch as I bend it?

Reply to
sunny5354
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Material condition? (hardness? yield strength?)

Getting a 3/4" 316SS rod (threaded?) to conform (by hand) to the OD (3 1/2") of a 3" pipe is going to be a little hard.

Have you considered an "off the shelf" SS U bolt?

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has them in 3/8" & 1/2"

cheers Bob

Reply to
BobK

This is a little better than a guess - I used to bend 1/2" 0.090" wall

316 tubing by hand. The bender I used had about 24" handles. It was hard work to do all afternoon. Surprisingly, 1/2" tubing was quite a bit harder to bend than 2/8" tubing. I am going to guess that barstock will be harder to bend than tubing and 3/4" a lot harder to bend than 1/2".

Bending a tight, smooth radius corner in this bar is not going to be easy either.

I think I would try to find someone with a hydraulic tubing bender for this job, but I won't say it is not possible to do by hand.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out! Bob

Reply to
BobH

I did something just about like this one time when my father-in-law wanted a stainless dinner bell. My buddy set up his Hossfeld bender and we made the 2 bends fine, then had to tweak it slightly to get it planar. The bends were perfect, identical radius.

I think you should buy a 3 1/2" stainless U-bolt from a trailer supply.

See for example:

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Grant

Reply to
Grant Erwin

A good truck service shop should be able to do it, or they'll know someone who bends u-bolts.. pretty common thing around my neck of the woods.

John

Reply to
JohnM

Thanks for the excellent feedback. It came down to having a local metal shop who will custom bend 3/4", 36" long fully threaded rods. The work involved to make sure the bends are exact is too much work. I have to have 20 units done, with no errors. The cost: $25/ft x 3ft ea= $75 x 20 units.

Most trailer shops/mechanic places don't have 3/4" thick 316 stainless steel u-bolts. I mean completely like the letter "U", no 90 degree bends. The closest I got was pipe braces, but all of them aren't thick & long enough.

Reply to
sunny5354

If they're bending them hot, make sure to use 316L (extra low carbon), or treat them to eliminate the possibility of carbide precipitation.

Reply to
Ned Simmons

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