[TheForge] 36" diameter ring

[RIES NIEMI]

Hey- I have a rusty claw hammer and a bent nail, and eleven dollars, and I
want to make a space shuttle- it has to work, and be done next thursday, as
I promised my wife a ride in it.

If I was going to make a 36" ring, I have a few different ways to do it, but
thats because I make stuff out of metal for a living, for the last 20 years
or so, and so I have a big stinking pile of tools.

But if I was only going to make one, and I didnt have any tools, I think I
would weld 3 pins of 1" round bar, about 5" tall, onto my steel work table.
Sticking straight up in a vee pattern, about 2" apart Mark the piece of
steel you want to bend every inch, I would use silver pencil, as soapstone
always rubs off right when you need to look at it.
Then I would start pulling on the piece of metal at each mark- wedge it with
two pins on one side, one on the other, and yank. Use a cheater bar
liberally, a piece of pipe about 6 feet long would be good.
You could also just stick it in the vise, yank, move to the next mark, yank,
and so on all the way down the line.

I also like the plywood circle idea, kinda like a giant conduit bender.

Personally of course, I would use the hossfeld bender- what else. I have a
set of fixed radius dies from 3" radius up to 30" radius, and above a 60"
circle I put marks on the steel 6" or 12" apart, and bend only on them. I
bent about a 30' radius in 1 1/2" square tube that way, arches for the roof
of my carport.
Take about a minute to bend a 36" diameter circle in flat bar.

By the way, the technical terms for the two ways you can bend flat bar is
"the hard way" and "the easy way"- swear to god.

I also have a big motorised section roller- rolls angle, flat, round and
pipe, but it takes longer to set up than the hossfeld, so for one I would
use the hossfeld, for 10 I would use the curvatricci.
The curvatricci is made in Italy, and is just gear and chain drive- not
hydraulic- but it will bend 1/4" x 2" angle pretty handily, any diameter you
want. Big diameters in one pass, tighter ones require multiple passes. there
are angle benders big enough to bend 4" angle in one pass down to 4'
diameter- figure about 25 grand, though.

Ries