angle iron ring

[Guerreiro]

Good day Sirs,

I'm in the process of making a project in wich I'll need to create two rings with aprox. 2 feet in diameter in angle iron, each. I do not possess any type of "machine/apparatus" to do this so it will have to be made manually.
Could any one please give me some tips on the best way(s) to do it?

Thank you all

Miguel Guerreiro

[Marksnagel]

Hey Miguel,

Could you post a rough drawing as to what you want to do please? That will guide others in which direction to send you.

THanks,
Mark<><

[jeder]

Hi Miguel,

The easy way is to find a shop that has a ring roller that will roll angle iron. If that is not possible I would make a jig from plate and heavy flat bar with an accurate segment of the arc needed and heat and clamp the angle to the jig working around the the arc in short sections until the ends meet.

[clinton]

Will the leg be inside or out side ? What size material are you using?
A turning wrench and dogs welded to a bench should do the job

[Guerreiro]

This is the rough format (pardon the bad drawing, that only shows half of the circle).
Turned out and with 2 feet diameter.

Miguel Guerreiro

Cantoneira (Small).bmp

[ThomasPowers]

Heat a section in a forge---which can be a hole in the ground with a pipe for air and charcoal for fuel. Place hot section flat on a slab of metal and use a bending fork to encourage it to bend.

*OR*

If you start with an extra long piece of angle iron you can take a narrow piece of 2' (Or anything close to the size of the circle you need) pipe and tack weld it to the slab of metal and then when your angle iron section is hot *clamp* the end to the piece of pipe and pull the angle iron around the pipe getting your bend that way---you will probably need a hammer to keep the other section flat on the slab. You then heat the next section and repeat.

[Don A]

Do you have a torch?

I could see finding a 3 or 4' piece of plate and a 2' diameter circle of some sort (pipe cut-off as mentioned above, manhole cover, etc.), fixing the cicle in the center of the plate and fashioning a hold-down for one end.

Start at the hold-down end and heat & form a couple inches at a time.

You could do something similar with a forge, but it would be a lot of back & forth work.

Don

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Heat it and beat it! Do cut the material an extra foot long - it will make the job so much easier. Also bend both ends before you do the rest.

[Sweany]

I found this:

TedCoffey
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 178



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There is a old trick to bending angle iron cold without rolling it. When you try to bend angle iron both legs want exert equal forces causing the angle to curve along the corner edge. The trick is to bend the iron in the opposite direction to a radius of about 3 times the final radius. In your case about 23 inch radius. Best to use bending forks(You can make them yourself by welding up some 3/4 square stock). This will compensate for the distortion. Now bend the other leg in the direction desired to the radius of 7.5" and the angle iron corner will straighten out as you make the final bend.
In other words the first bend compensates by stretching the opposite leg to your bend.
I know this sound confusing but it works quite well. If you don't believe this try it. You'll be amazed.

Link:


http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general-archive/rolling-angle-iron-77709/

[Guerreiro]

Thank you all.

I'll have a lot to work with all your sugestions.

Miguel

[Sam Thompson]

I had to do something similar once and it took so much time and effort to get (nearly) right that I lost money on the job. Make sure that you price this with plenty to spare.

[aquamanlr]

If I remember right, someone was doing some reinactment work and built a laundry tub stand.

Maybe someone else could tell you how to search it out in the older posts.

LeeRoy

[fciron]

The description of the reverse bend (posted by sweany quoting someone else) is a bit off. The idea is to bend the other leg (the one that is vertical) in the opposite direction. I got this trick from Francis Whitaker's Blacksmith's cookbook.

When you bend angle iron it's like bending one piece of flat stock the hard way, but the other flange of the iron will need to either shrink or expand depending whether it's flange out or flange. The part near the corner moves because it's connected solidly, but the far edge only bends and so does not remain at right angles to the flange you're working on. So you need to pre-stretch or -shrink it. Confused yet? I might try a better explanation and a sketch when it's not suppertime on a Friday.

[Don A]

I was the one that made the kettle stand that LeeRoy mentioned. Here's the thread:

Big ring for a kettle stand

My ring was from flat stock, bent the easy way, but you might have some use for the method described.

I'm thinking that it might work if the supports on either side of the void were big rounds slotted to fully support the vertical side of the angle iron. I did mine cold; you might have better luck doing the angle hot. I could also see rigging a curved swage beneath the supports for hot work.

I'm afraid that trying it across the tool that I used for the flat stock would be too unstable to keep things running straight.

You never did say how wide your stock is. If it is like 1/2 or 3/4", this might be do-able. If you're talking about 2 or 3" angle... that could be a bit more difficult.

Don