Stainless Steel Bar Bending

[GaryS65]

I've been tasked with making 40 of these.

I'm planning on using this 50mm thick plate as a jig, drilling & boring holes to accept dowels or pegs which I will then bend around. Probably make a fork with a bearing to reduce the force required.

Has anyone got any thoughts or opinions. I've not had to bend stainless bar in this sort of quantity before. Usually just use the miracle bender.

(Other bits of metal will be cut off the plate and then the surface milled flat)

 

[Tigman]

Bit of heat wouldn't go amiss , but don't cook it !

 

[Agroshield]

Are the first and third bends identical?

You might be able to do those on each end of a straight bar first, and then do the middle one.

It could save on tooling and also mean that you are pulling on a longer section of material. Doing the bends in a 1, 2, 3 sequence means the last one only has a very short end to hold onto.

 

[jsf55]

As above !

 

[BrokenBiker]

have been told in the past that if you use heat to get it cherry for bending, quenching in water returns some if its stainless proerties, sure i saw it on a blacksmithing video making a lifting eye. not sure how much it helps though.

i would as above, do the ends first while its still straight bar then finish with the middle bend

 

[GaryS65]

Bit of heat wouldn't go amiss , but don't cook it !

Hygiene application so would need to passivate and polish if heated. More work.

 

[GaryS65]

Are the first and third bends identical?

You might be able to do those on each end of a straight bar first, and then do the middle one.

It could save on tooling and also mean that you are pulling on a longer section of material. Doing the bends in a 1, 2, 3 sequence means the last one only has a very short end to hold onto.

Yes they are identical but I don't want to pull on the bar itself as in the past that has given a bend without a constant radius. I want to use a fork or a follower to pull the bar around the pin

 

[Hitch]

Have you got a press or anything?
Id definitely do with a former and follower. Bar doesn't look overly big 10/12mm.
Meat hook at a guess.

 

[hotponyshoes]

I'd bend that cold.
The time spent making up a jig/handle to let you bend it cold will be more than saved in the cleaning up you'll have to do if you heat it.

Ideally make the jig pins from stainless (or steel with stainless tube over if budget is tight) or you'll get steel embedded into the insides of the bends that will show up as rust (without a load more prep before passivation)

 

[tom2207]

good job for a press and make up a simple bit of tooling

 

[Erie Fred]

good job for a press and make up a simple bit of tooling

a logsplitter can be used, to make all the bends at once.
Both plates could be simple burnouts, polish the cut edge up to not mar the SS.

The old RR forge shops used a machine very similar to a logsplitter called a Bulldozer
for just these types of jobs.

https://surplusrecord.com/machinery-equipment/bulldozers/