[TheForge] HF & SO benders - revisited

Wed May 22 13:03:03 2002

My post to the forge this morning was an "Oops!"  I thought that I was just 
sending to Dave Brown. <g>

*******
The UMBA  Spring Conference at Haverhill

Making Jigs for bends took on a whole new light after watching  a master 
this weekend.  Demonstrator: Jack Brubaker made it look easy.  After I got 
home, I did some research on him and found he is a past president of ABANA, 
etc.  http://www.parksgallery.com/lekae/a00000000000000000000001.htm

http://www.jackbrubaker.com/info/abt.html

First the bending tools that  Brubaker used were a mild steel "c" with the 
handle attached to the vary   open edge of the "C" .  He said it made 
twisting in the same plane much easier.

Basically  Jack Brubaker  forged out an original piece.   He then "quickly" 
forged sections of flat mild steel to partial segments of the compound 
structure.  For example he might use 1/8 inch by half inch flat steel to 
make the components of his jig.   He said it was easier to get the segments 
to conform by first over-bending them, and then straightening them to fit 
the original curve.   These segments become his bending "fence"  after 
welding  another form fit piece of  flat steel.  So that the finished  jig 
looks somewhat like a jig twisted from angle iron.   He said that the mild 
steel tack welded together is amazingly strong, and will not put to any 
real strength test when  making production pieces from hot metal.   He 
showed us a large tub of assorted jigs that he brought with from his 
shop/studio  in  Indiana.  One secret is to write on each jig  what it is 
for, and better yet, wire a sample part to the jig for future reference.

Roger Degner will be offering the UMBA tape he made of the event 
shortly.    I am looking forward to viewing it to see all that I missed.

Will try and do more detail later.  Was quite a large group  for 
Haverhill.  After watching the demo, I now know  why.

Dann

At 07:19 AM 5/22/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>Dann -
>
>I'd like to hear more about the jigs for making bends.
>It just so happens that I have to make some this week, and was thinking this
>morning about how I plan to do them.
>Any info you can share would be very helpful.
>Please post it to theforge so that everyone can benefit.
>
>Thanks.
>
>Bob
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [email protected]
>[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Dann
>Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 4:03 AM
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: Re: [TheForge] HF & SO benders - revisited
>
><snip>
>  Demo at Haverhill  Saturday session included  a
>demonstration in making jigs for complicated multiple production
>bends.