Rolling Angle Iron

[Smokeman]

Hi folks, I have to make a large ornamental bird feeder for a guy and I need to roll a 36" circle out of 1X1X1/8 angle iron. What is the best way I could do this. I saw a roller at harbor freight for 69 somthing dollars. But I am not sure that it will work. Any Ideas. Thanks

[unkle spike]

It will take some serious power to roll angle iron, you are trying to roll against an edge versus in the flat. I have one of the 69 dollar HF rollers, and I am pretty sure it will not do it. You may have to have a local shop with a power roll do the ring for you. If you find one and "golly gee whiz" like the operator is some type of genius you may get a good deal on having them roll it for you.

[mike-hr]

There's a learning curve in rolling angle iron. the angle will curl in as you roll it, so you have to pre-roll the non-circle leg of the angle a certain amount to compensate. I forgot the ratio, maybe someone here knows it. It's in the Francis Whittaker book.

[dablacksmith]

i have a friend who hase done this .. it isnt easy . he modified one of the 3 wheel ring rollers (like the shop outfitters one) by makeing his own rollers and he still had problens with twist. if you only have a couple to make you would be better off farming it out to somebody that is setup for doing it.

[Awalker]

You could try heating it in a forge and wrapping it around something that is roughly 36". Or, you could weld two pieces together to form a box section and then roll it in one of the rollers. I have done that with flat bar, by welding it to a piece of box tube and rolling it to get an arch, just spot weld it both corners about every four inches or so. Just re member 1"x 1/8" angle isn't al that tough , so you could even likely do it with a hammer and anvil cold.

[welder19]

Do you really have to use angle?

There would be a lot of easier metals to roll into a 36" circle.

welder19

[Smokeman]

The man wants a 36" diameter ring, 1" raised edge and expanded metal to sit in it like a tray for the birds to stand on. I am open ears for any other thoughts. I just need a ring 1" X 36" raised edge. Figured that angle would do the trick. Let me know what you think here.

[Blacksmith Jim]

could roll two different rings and weld them together...

[redanvil]

Do you have a Hossfeld? Or a couple bending forks? I think Harbor freight sells a small benchtop bender similar to the hossfeld for 1/10th the price.

[ThomasPowers]

Excellent, designed so the birds feet can become frostbit standing on vey cold steel and so be easier to harvest for eating?

[hill.josh]

I have never done this but you could take 2in flat bar bend it in to your circle and bend a second ring that was 1in flat bar, make it 35 3/4in. (if you are using 1/8in flat bar) reinforce it with an "X" of 3/8 bar on the inside, then take the 2 in. 36in circle put it around the smaller ring, and hammer down the inch outside the "reinforced" inch. I think you will want to cut it into 4 sections (the inch that isn't reinforced) hammer down then weld back then grind flat.. it would work without the weld since its holding just a bird holder though. its kinda complicated but i think it would work.

Edited October 10, 2008 by hill.josh
forgot something

[Gayle Brooks]

I've rolled similiar stuff. I made a "sweep" that I welded to the table. Its fairly large (1/2x 1) that was rolled in the roller. Then I started angle iron over the swedge block, getting the curl started, then heating up the first 1/3 (not the whole thing) I bent and clamped it to the table and ran a hammer inside the angle so that the "up" leg was going back to 90 (hammered) to the sweep. Also used bending forks to "pull" the angle iron into the sweep.

In all its small steps or the angle will collapse and be a "v" shape not a "L" shape if you cause it to move to fast, especially the light stuff.

Hope it helps!

-Rory

[CurlyGeorge]

I agree with Regional Chaos. Roll two seperate rings. One flat, and one on edge. Then weld them together. That would be a lot easier and may be cheaper than paying to have angle rolled.

[Smokeman]

Thanks for your input guys. I'll try a few of the methods that you posted and see what works out the best. Thanks Again !

[Valentin]

Or you can cut with an angle grinder every 1cm cut cut cut cut ...than bend than weld than grind i have done so when i did not whanted to make rollers on large stock like 120mm thick square bar but ... It's much faster 2 make 2 rings and than weld

[maddog]

Bending angle iron means upseting one leg and the stock is going to fight you every inch. If I understand the design specs its up to you how you attach the expanded metal so why not consider a different approach? Roll the rim out of 1"x1/8" which is easy and then add something to hold the expanded metal. You could roll a 3/8" sq bar, you could weld or rivet on tabs intermittently and the tabs could be some pretty forged shape, you could make a simple attractive grill perhaps involving concentric circles or you could just weld the expanded metal to the inside of the rim. After all it only has to support birds. Its not a helicopter landing pad.

[NeatGuy]

find someone with a pyramid roll and pay them to do it then get on with the job.