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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Melb
    Posts
    1

    Default Need someone to bend Flat Steel Bar in Melbourne

    Hello Guys,

    I need help in finding someone who can bend some flat steel bar, for legs for a coffee table and a side table that I'm making.

    To give you an idea, I need to get the bar bent, similar to what is shown in the attached photo here:
    http://www.plumedesign.com.au/shop/images/lillia%20round%20dia%201000%20$559.jpg

    The material is 40x10 Flat steel bar, and the attachment below shows what I need to get bent, ie 2 pieces of item "A", and 2 pieces of item "B".

    Ideally if you know anyone in Melbourne's Northern suburbs, please provide their details here, or PM me?

    Thanks again in advance!
    Attached Files Attached Files

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    4,779

    Default

    Hi there,

    If you don't get any offers, have you considered welding four pieces together and then grind/linish the edges to a round finish?

    I have done this in the past with many projects and with a little time and care you can achieve a finish that looks like one piece of material.

    Cheers,

    Simon
    Girl, I don't wanna know about your mild-mannered alter ego or anything like that." I mean, you tell me you're, uh, super-mega-ultra-lightning babe? That's all right with me. I'm good. I'm good.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Alexandra Vic
    Age
    69
    Posts
    654

    Default

    Used to have similar things done in stainless and mild bar in the past. With 100x10 stainless bar the tightest bend we could get was around 55mm inside radius with an 80 ton pressbrake and special tooling. Mild is slightly easier to work with and has more predictable springback tendencies than SS, which will be to your benefit.

    The issue with tight radius (relative to material thickness) bends is that the force needed to achieve the bend increases virtually exponentially as the bend radius decreases, so for a given amount of force, there is a lower limit to the bend radius.

    Another issue that you will probably face is one of tooling and setting the machine. We had to shell out for custom tooling to do our jobs, and although the people we contracted to do the bending made up the male tooling, it was not cheap to produce ( think $2k ten years ago) and the female V was a stock item also around $1K back then. We were doing a run of 100 legs and the tooling costs were incorporated into the pricing of the job, but for a custom 1off job, they would be prohibitive. You would also get charged to setup the machine for your job, then reset back to normal config for the job the machine is used for, unless you find someone with the tooling on hand who is regularly swapping tooling and jobs on the machine, in which case you might only get stung a single setup fee.

    A final issue is damage to the material during bending. the bar actually has to self feed (slide) into the V bed as it is being formed so tends to scrape as it does so. Once the bend is achieved, there is likely to considerable distortion in the material where it has been in contact with the lip of the V, and this needs to ground and polished out taking a fair amount of time if you need to match an existing finish.


    All in all, for the tight radiuses you are wanting, I think I would be talking to a good fabricator about having them cut and welded, MIG outside and edges and TIG with minimal filler rod for the seam inside the corner. The MIG could be ground back flush to the surface and the TIG should fill the seam without needing grinding. Also much easier to get sizing exact this way without needing to do test bends to calculate gain through the bend which is a whole other issue.

    Remember to do any required surface prep, drilling, countersinking etc before bending or welding, it is much quicker and easier that way.

    My 1c worth.
    I used to be an engineer, I'm not an engineer any more, but on the really good days I can remember when I was.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Melbourne
    Age
    54
    Posts
    825

    Default

    A job like that shouldn't be a problem for a Bramley bender or you could always heat it with an oxy. I'm working interstate for the next couple of weeks but if you don't get any other offers and aren't in a hurry I might be able to help you out when I get back. I'm in Fawkner.
    Cheers,
    Greg.

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