Bending 2" x 3/16 flat bar help please.

[HundredaireSocialite]

hello everyone.

I'm trying to bend this stuff into the tightest, squarest U that I can manage. I need it 2" deep and 1 1/4 between bends. But working on such a small piece, it just comes out round.
In the past, I've welded two pieces of angle together to accomplish this, but I'd like to find a better way.

So I turn to you, good people of welding web, for direction.

I've got a harbor freight floor mounted bender, and I'm using the right angle attachment. There are no guarantees that I'm using it right. That's really why I'm posting this, I want to know if the problem is me or the bender, and what I can learn from all this.

I know a press brake would be nice for this and I hope to build one soon. - just not soon enough for this.

This part is for my first ever paid welding job and I'm super excited. I'll post it in the projects section tomorrow night when I'm further along, after I get my bending situation squared away.

Thanks for reading this.

[tapwelder]

rect. tubing might work.

congratulations

[Boostinjdm]

rect. tubing might work.

congratulations

I'll second that.
I cut L-shapes and U-shapes out of rect. tubing fairly often. Just try to avoid the seam.

[HundredaireSocialite]

That's a great idea guys, thanks a lot!

[MoonRise]

You seem to have gotten a good way to get your desired end shape, so that aspect is looking up for you.

But you seem to be using the bender incorrectly. (note: I don't -know- if you can get your desired size and shape in one piece using the bender, but I think not.)

You can get -one- sharp bend using the right angle attachment. What you bent was the strap around the round die and not the strap across the 'edge' of the right angle attachment. Reread the directions on using the right angle attachment and try getting just that aspect correct. I have done a single (or some widely spaced apart multiple) right angle bends, so the bender does work and can do decent sharp/right angle bends.

Hmmm, for 1-1/4 inch between the legs of the bend I think that marking the strap out (just two lines across the strap spaced 1.25 inches apart ) and then clamp it in a vise and using a lever or BFH to start the bend and then finesse it as desired. The first bend is easy. It's the second tight/closely-spaced bend that complicates things. Your vise may have the jaws size/spacing to allow you to do the bends or not.

[bert the welder]

I ain't got no stinking bender!!
Cut your piece to length, find center, mark your 1 1/4" in the middle, take a thin Zip cut or hacksaw, or what ever cutter you've got, and cut a kerf along this line. Start with no more than a third of the depth of the material. Put the sucker in a vise and bend it with the kerf to the outside of the bend. Clamp it, and weld up the kerf. Pretty nice, square, inner corner with no weld bead in the way.
Hope this helps.
Bert

[raferguson]

Heat would help, enough to get it red hot at least.

If you have an oxy-acetylene torch you could heat where you want the bends and get something close to square. That is what I would do, pretty fast and easy, would be rectangular with rounded corners rather than U shaped.

If you had a blacksmith forge you could heat it in the forge and then bend it to shape, squaring it up with a hammer. Blacksmiths make square corners by hitting the corner from both sides. I believe that a blacksmith could make square corners, but it would probably be more trouble than it was worth. Might be helpful to have a spacer of the right thickness to keep the U open, probably 1 5/8 inch thick, or 1.5 inches.

Even with heat you need some leverage to bend the part, so better to cut it from the long piece after you have bent it to shape. This would be doubly true if you did not have heat.

My two cents.

Richard