Twisting round stock for railings

I think you could weld your small stock to your larger stock, twist the lot. Then I think you have to have the ends of the small stuff cooler than the middle and untwist until it looks right. I'm sure if you're doing a bunch then you'll have to do the same amount of twisting and untwisting on each one.You definitely want to twist all of them together, knowing this is (was) a common item there is an "easy" way.

Eide

Those are basket twists.

To do it, you take a bundle of straight rods arranged as though they were a tube. Three or four rods is easiest Six work good because the geometry of the hexagon. Six rods nestle around a seventh of the same size. But you can use any number, the important part is that the rods to be used in the twist touch the outside.

Then weld the ends together but not to the center rod (if you are using one). Then remove the center rod, heat up all the rods red hot and twist them tight. If you are trying to twist many rods over a large diameter, you may need to rig up a guide to keep the ends aligned.

Once they're twisted, you untwist them and the basket forms pretty much on it's own.

Then you weld it to whatever you want them attached to.

Yep, only thing I do different is I push the ends together slightly to make em bulge out inthe center better, but either way works. We always referred to them as filament baskets.....I just finished making 14 of them out of 4 pieces of 1/2" sq stock to form baskets about 8" overall with a bulge in the middle of 3 1/2". I then cut one piece of the sq stock loose on both ends. I make candle holders out of them..

I did make a jig so all I have to do is place the welded bar stock in it, clamp it do same to other side. ONe side is non rotating, the other side rotates, and I have degree marks on it, so its easy to duplicate numerous baskets so they all look the same. I had previously bought them locally, ready made but they jumped big time early this year.......no way in hell was I paying close to $20 for a basket......late last year I was able to get em for about $3.25 each. Took about an hour to throw a jig together, out of scrap materials.

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 17:39:19 -0600, "Paul K. Dickman" wrote: Those are basket twists.

To do it, you take a bundle of straight rods arranged as though they were a tube. Three or four rods is easiest Six work good because the geometry of the hexagon. Six rods nestle around a seventh of the same size. But you can use any number, the important part is that the rods to be used in the twist touch the outside.

Then weld the ends together but not to the center rod (if you are using one). Then remove the center rod, heat up all the rods red hot and twist them tight. If you are trying to twist many rods over a large diameter, you may need to rig up a guide to keep the ends aligned.

Once they're twisted, you untwist them and the basket forms pretty much on it's own.

Then you weld it to whatever you want them attached to.

Excellent Guys Thanx!! I'm heading out to the shop...if she's lookin for me.

That jig sounds interesting, would you happen to have a picture or two of it?

Thanks, Eide