[TheForge] bar twisters

[RIES NIEMI]

Dave- I am not putting your machine down, or trying to put on airs- I think
it is pretty cool, actually. I just had lots of work, not much time to build
one, and enough budget to afford buying one.

But I swear, if you twist a piece enough, it will get shorter. We is talking
a lot of twist, here.

There are indeed store bought twisters- quite a few of em, actually, ranging
from ones you clamp to the work bench and twist by hand, to giant motorised
ones like mine. They all, as far as I know, come from Europe. Hebo, Glaser,
and ESB are some of the ones that advertise and sell over here. They all
advertise in the fabricator, the Nomma magazine. Eagle bender sells a couple
too.

My machine is kinda ridiculous in its overkill, but I had a good year, a few
projects with a lot of twists, and the tax code allows me to section 179
expense the whole cost of it off my taxes. You can see what they look like
at http://www.heboe.com

We just finished a job for a couple of benches that had over 300 twisted
pieces in them. I had my nine year old running the twisting machine- he just
loads the piece, hits the foot pedal, and the machine runs em up to 720
degrees and stops. It is programmable by the degree- in fact you can program
it to twist something, then back up a little to compensate for springback.
Then he unloads and does it again. He can do about 50 pieces an hour- these
were 3/8" square, 12" long. Twisted cold, of course.
I only twist hot on the hebo for multiple reverse twists, or something
funky, like maybe bronze that has already been forged, and thus has
different hard and soft areas. Although I was playing around with square
tube last week, and I was doing some of that hot, because hot you can twist
it right down to a toffee twist- That will suck some length out it though.
With square tube, you can lose an inch of length in just a couple of twisted
spots.

Another job we did this year had about 400- 500 pieces of 3/4" square
stainless, 2 feet long or so, twisted. Plus a ton of 1/2" square stainless,
(well maybe not a ton- the whole job was only five tons, so probably only
about 5 or 600 lbs of 1/2" square.) But it sure is nice to be able to twist
all that stainless cold.

The machine is well enough designed that I have never had a problem with
anything sagging- but it will snap stuff cold, or just part it off hot, if
you overdo it.

There is something kinda satisfying about twisting 1 1/2" square cold. But I
really like your octagon bed post. In fact, I have been experimenting lately
with some of grants fancy spring swages, and getting similar effects with 1"
round- by using his vining dies, I put a whole bunch of little grooves in
the round, then twist and reverse twist- I have to post a picture of it- its
a really cool finish. Instead of an octagon, it is about 30 or 40 little
faces by the time you vine it.