Hardie mounted cold bender

[Ted Ewert]

I was looking at some benders, deciding if I wanted to buy one, and chose to make one instead. I'll usually just heat up whatever I need to bend and do it on the anvil, but there are occasions where a little more precision would be nice.

This is not a big, heavy duty machine because I don't need one. I'm usually bending flat stock which is 1/8" to 3/16" thick. This will bend 1/4" square bar (haven't tried anything wider) and I haven't tried round stock yet either.

Anyway, this is it:

The pins are 5/8" mild steel, with a couple of collars for the pin on the arm. I made the body from a piece if 1" x 2" (1/8" thick walls) tubing. I partially filled that in on the business end with some 3/4" x 1 3/4" flat bar for strength. I also welded on a piece of angle with some 1/4-20 bolts on the side to hold the work flat. I found I needed a stiffener in addition, so I'm using a length of 1/4" x 1.5" flat bar you can see in the pic above.

Here are all the bits:

I didn't need the second hole on the arm. I used the hardie hole because it will withstand a lot mote torque than my vises, and it's easy. I bent a piece of 3/16" x 1" into a decent 90, although the radius is slightly bigger than on a real brake. 

I can see that there is a whole lot I don't know about these types of brakes. Nevertheless, it was fun to build an a whole lot cheaper than buying one.

Ted