A Crazy Twist And Bend

[William McCormick]

What a mind boggling bend this was. Thank God, I caught what I missed in time. What I do is I calculate where the end of the rail has to be, and what rotation I have to make when I go to bend the rail at the break point between the stoop and the steps. To get the placement of the bends, I just angle the pipe rail down past the actual position it will end up being, in my drawing. Basically act like I am not going to rotate the pipe in the bender. This way I can get the proper angle to bend the railings down, and the correct placement of bend marks and cut length. My only over sight was that when I did that it alters the bends at the end of the pipe railing at the bottom step. Instead of the angle being the same as the angle needed on the finished rail, the top bend on the bottom step ends up being under bent, because of the false angle I create to get the top stoop bends. It ended up being no big deal because I figured it out. And in the future I can understand it before I make those mistakes. It causes about a seven degree error in the bottom bends.

But so far so good.









Sincerely,

William McCormick

[denrep]

Nice work, WM!
You're a mathemagician.
Thanks for posting it.

On a side note... I can't believe that I never saw, noticed, or thought of aluminum horses, like yours. (Hits self in head)
'course back when one still figures that there's no sense getting too involved because any day he could be discovered as the next Mr. America, one doesn't notice things like lightweight horses.

[William McCormick]

Thank you.

Yea if I ever stood still for say ten minutes, my father would build an aluminum flower pot around me. They are heavy duty horses not as light as you would think but we have put some heavy things on those horses, and hammered and dropped a lot of weight on them. They are very solid though.

Sincerely,

William McCormick

[Murphy's law]

That is very nice work! You make it look easy man making all those bends and having everything line up is very impressive.

[BD1]

Awesome work ! It's nice not seeing snow blowing all over like it is now.

[William McCormick]

I switched work to a set of gates, a stainless steel cover plate, some AC work, Mac mini computer holders, a couple of drawings for rails and boat parts. Those rails are buried deep now in snow, Ha-ha. I am just waiting for a nice day, and I am going to go out and finish them up. They are for friends and I am scrimping and rummaging for material.

Sincerely,

William McCormick

[pedaldude]

Bends can be scary! I worked for a mechanic/welder who used to do custom work. His most challenging job was headers for a GT40, he said he cheated and used flexible plastic tubing for a mock up.

Those saw horses also caught my eye! Nice work once again and thanks for sharing.

[MikeGyver]

Looks good. Probably super easy to do with the BendTech cad software.

[William McCormick]

Bends can be scary! I worked for a mechanic/welder who used to do custom work. His most challenging job was headers for a GT40, he said he cheated and used flexible plastic tubing for a mock up.

Those saw horses also caught my eye! Nice work once again and thanks for sharing.

For headers we used to bend to our tightest radius, a bunch of 180's 90's and 45's and then use bits and pieces, to get a shape that worked and fit into the engine compartment. And then just measure the angles and bend as much as we could with just one bend. It is a good idea to put a stripe with a marker down the pipe on the outside of the bend. So if you use more then one piece to make a bend you can keep them lined up with the marks, and when you do have to rotate them, you know how much.

Sincerely,

William McCormick

[William McCormick]

Looks good. Probably super easy to do with the BendTech cad software.

I actually use General Cadd, we actually made the macros to do this. Myself and two other fellows on the free forum.



Sincerely,

William McCormick

[William McCormick]

These were a pain to bend up. That "Z" shaped bend causes you to have to add and subtract from the length to allow for the thickness of the metal.

They are going behind a giant flat panel Monitor. So I am sure they are aesthetic enough. The apple is just so I can get a fastener in at the bottom.

Notice I didn't say the apple is so you can screw through it. Ha-ha. That is what I texted the person I made it for. I turned a little read when I reread it.



Sincerely,

William McCormick

[William McCormick]

I bent them as much as I could on the finger brake/break, and then I used a square bar supported on both sides by stacks of metal. And came down on it with a "V" block to tighten them up. Very muck like a window brake/break, but upside down and less expensive.


Sincerely,

William McCormick