Bending Channel The Hard Way

[33arlovinski]

I've got a design I'd like to make but it requires bending C 3 X 4.1 with around 3 inch inside radius to a 45 degree angle.  For tools, I've got a good propane forge and a #2 Hossfeld with 6 feet of leverage arm.  Today with a scrap piece for trial and error, heat was not a problem but twisting was.  I figure, if I fabricate a hold down to prevent the twist, it just might work.

 

Has anyone tried such a bend?  If so, what problems were encountered?  My questions are in effort to prevent waste.  Thanks for any suggestions.  Arlo

[Charles R. Stevens]

Multiple cuts and welds, localize the heat and free hand it ( may bulge or pull in the flanges, that will leat to corrections, build a jig and heat and bend or press...
I have done both of cut and weld and free hand, my dad would wrather cut and weld then help me free hand 4x1.5 again.

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Arlo,

 

I'm with Charles on this one..  Your asking a lot to compress the flange at 45 degrees with a radius..  I think I would cut a wedge from the flange,   establish your radius... set her flat..  than trace a piece for the cut out and have at it with the Miller..  That's what I have done in the past...  Ya cant bull the Hossfield to keep it from twisting.. 

 

Good luck

 

Jim

[Timothy Miller]

You would need a roll with a top and bottom flange to contain it to stop it from twisting on the hossfeild. 

[jeremy k]

Does the hossfeld have that capacity? - maybe hot - I have one and I wouldn't try it with mine.

[JNewman]

Fabricating a bending mandrel for the Hossfeld  with a top and bottom flange will work.  The question is whether bending the channel is worth the work and material involved in making the tooling.   As well  that tight a radius on that wide a channel  you are likely to end up with quite a bit of thinning on the outer flange,  I would try and keep the inner flange hotter.  The bending mandrel will be fighting you on this as it will chill the inside  flange. 

[Frosty]

Trying this on a Hossfeld is more likely to just frustrate a person or damage the Hossfeld.

 

How to solve this little exercise? Let's see, a piece of threaded 3" od pipe say 8" long and a couple caps, two pieces of plate with 3" holes drilled in them (use a hole saw, don't EVEN ask!). A length of chain that'll pass through the pipe and wrap around something solid, say a stout 2" or so, steel stake driven into the ground with a couple more "stays (those are more heavy stakes) driven behind it to reinforce the anchor.

 

Put your piece of channel between the plates and use bushings, (make the darned things yourself with the HOLE SAW!) so the plates sandwich the channel iron snuggly but don't pinch it.

 

Don't make me tell you to use a length of channel iron LONGER than you need for the finished part!

 

Now for the fun part, with your mandrel anchored to the stayed stake, attach  chains to the ends of the channel iron, (don't tell me I had to TELL YOU to burn or drill a hole in the ends of the channel so the cable can't slip off and kill someone or damage the pickup!!) hook the chains to the hitch of your  4x4 pickup truck that's been loaded heavy and drive forward slowly till the observer, (YOU!) who is standing WELL CLEAR and NOT in line with the direction of pull on the chains!!! Says stop, the channel iron is to the mark.

 

Back off with the truck and measure the bend, there WILL be some rebound and you may need to give it another tug but it'll be close on the first pull.

 

That's all there is to it. Sure the guys in the field usually use a dozer to pull and a tree as a mandrel but it's the same principle. AND if I have to tell you you can straighten the legs that got bowed during the bend by DRIVING on them with the pickup or jacking it up using a couple 2x4s as spacers, I'll be downright embarrassed for you.

 

The good lord gave us BIG BRAINS and THUMBS so we didn't need as much muscle as the critters that want to eat us. Use the darned things!

 

This same trick works a treat on pipe if you run a cable near the same ID as the pipe or even kinda close through it. No kinks, smooth bend right to the mandrel. Easy greasy.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Your in rare form, Frosty. Did you start the weekend early?

[ianinsa]

Frosty,

 

You had me all impressed there till you sujested the 4 x 4 pickup, wat's wrong with using a chainblock(I think you call them a chainfall) secured to a tree/wheel buried in the ground.(and you do'nt risk spilling from the jug while driving :D ) Not that I think it wo'nt work, just more "controlled" and possibly safer. Smart plan none the less.

 

Now I know why you are/were so keen on the gazintas in your shop!Not to bodyshop/service M1Abrahams you just do'nt want to get a Hossfeld! B)

 

Regards Ian

[Frosty]

Your in rare form, Frosty. Did you start the weekend early?

 

Yeah, my weekends took a more permanent status almost four years ago now. Actually the book I recommended to Samcro in his prayer request, "My Stroke of Insight" has made a huge difference in my recovery. I'm finding if I can keep my brain hemispheres balanced I can keep things much straighter and express myself more clearly. I'm hoping this becomes more my regular form rather than rare. Of course I'm still pretty windy but that's been ME as long as I can remember.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Frosty]

Frosty,

 

You had me all impressed there till you sujested the 4 x 4 pickup, wat's wrong with using a chainblock(I think you call them a chainfall) secured to a tree/wheel buried in the ground.(and you do'nt risk spilling from the jug while driving :D ) Not that I think it wo'nt work, just more "controlled" and possibly safer. Smart plan none the less.

 

Now I know why you are/were so keen on the gazintas in your shop!Not to bodyshop/service M1Abrahams you just do'nt want to get a Hossfeld! B)

 

Regards Ian

 

 

Sure, a chain fall, cable come along, winch, 4 mule hitch etc. will indeed do the job with better control but everybody has a pickup, 4x4 is optional. If I were doing this in my shop it'd be done in short order, that's gozinta work, no stays necessary. Seriously, when I was putting up the frame on my shop I discovered one of the posts had been twisted by a forklift poke and I didn't notice it before signing off on it. Bent and twisted it took a couple pins (2" sq) my porta power, a 6' long purpose made wrench and an hour to have it snapline straight. Stands in the NW corner of the shop.

 

None of this technique was my idea, I only tweak it as necessary to do a piece of work. Dad told me about it being done in the logging camps in the 20's, then we were working around a logging operation mid 80's I think and those guys used the technique to bend a piece of pretty large diameter pipe to go around a bend and I had an AH HAH! moment. THAT'S what Dad was talking about!

 

Gotta go, Baxter the Doxy has class. Later guys.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Frosty, Glad your getting a handle on the old noodle, infact I never said so but I am great full your head is harder than a tree.

[Frosty]

I'm glad to be here and owe a huge vote of thanks to the gang here. Without the prayers and the support Deb got, things wouldn't have gone so well. No dents in the tree, two dents in my head. Tree's harder than my head. . .

 

However, the -  tree - is - D-E-A-D! <Victorious HOWL!>

 

Frosty The Lucky.