another fabrication question...

I need to bend a 1/4" thick steel plate, 90 degrees. The length of the bend is 8". I want about a 1/2 inside radius. If I apply heat, can I bend it myself or do I need to take it somewhere to get it bent?

 

Is the part small enough you can put it in a press brake ? that would be best.
Also, the type of steel will make a difference. If it's hot rolled steel, it will bend alot easier than colled rolled steel. Cold rolled will crack & break also.
Heating it will help, you can make simple bending dies to use in a regular press. If it's something that has to be bent in place, heat the shit out of it and get a big cheater bar & good luck !

 

It'll take you a while, but you could run the torch back and forth long enough to heat it up, but I'd have it clamped and a another piece clamped to the top before I bent it. Use a couple pieces of strap and some 1/2" pipe to get the shape you want.

 

It is for my rear spring hanger bracket on my COE. I want to change the front part of it so it has a tab sticking out from the frame rail. The tab will be used to mount my storage boxes under my bed. I want it bent because the rest of the bracket is stamped and bent from the factory. Welding on a square bracket will just look wrong.

Sounds like cold rolled is the way to go and that I should find someone with a press brake.

 

Do you have a hyd press? If so get a couple pieces of heavy angle iron for a top & bottom die get your hot wrench ready & have at it. Make some stabilizer bar for the dies so that they don't twist.

 

On the thick stuff I cut a slot in the backside, bend it then weld up the gap.

 

go to a building supply and buy some heavy gauge angle like they use over garage doors and fireplaces comes in the size you need...

 

Get a piece of 1/4 wall square or rectangle tubing and just cut out what you need since at that thickness the edges are rounded already.

 

you beat me to it dreracecar
i was going to say the same. square or rectangle tube.

 

Length of bend for quarter inch plate at a half inch radius is nowhere near 8inches...also, cold working the material will impart a lot of stress. Get some 1/2 inch OD or undersized pipe heat it to yellow and hammer it over

 

ANYBODY??? Or should I tell him?

 

Might work better if we had a blue print

 

Hotrodbrad,

The material is 8" wide and he wants to bend it across the 8", hence his terminalogy "lenth of bend is 8""

 

Dang...I wanted to see how long it took him to figure that out.

Pipe is a good idea, but it won't work for me. One leg is 2", the other is 6-1/2". I'll just get the parts bent in a press brake.

Thanks

 

heat it and bend it. If you want a specific radius get a pipe with the correct radius and bend it over the pipe.

 

I would take it to a local sheet metal shop, with a sketch of course. They will probably do it on the spot for almost nothing.

An 8" length of bend on 1/4" steel is no easy feat. It will bend better at home if you can leave a long leg on it for leverage and cut it down after.

Bob

 

If I had to do it myself with limited tools all I would need is a bench vise, torch, and a crescent wrench.

Sandwich it in your vice between two 8" pieces of steel, heat the line you want bent, take the crescent wrench and pulled the top down to 90*. You may want to sandwich two more plates on the top when you go to do this, just to make sure you have a nice even bend.

 

Just a sidenote...if you don't own a hydralic press...think about using a hydralic log-spliter...I have a "27 ton" unit and with some imagination and fabbing of some dies, you can bend most anything...just my $.02