Boy, time sure goes fast. We have a family member going through a health crisis, and I thought it had been about a week since I worked on the build and posted. It's been more like 2 weeks. I've got several aspects of the build going: cockpit side of the steering setup; dash hoop; and tilt steering column. I'm inching my way along on all 3, trying to integrate them well as I build.
One problem I've been having is bending brackets out of thicker material. Mostly I use 16, 14 and 12 gauge mild steel sheet for stock. With 16 gauge, I can bend things pretty easily in my bench vise with an engineer's hammer and some heavy steel plate. With 14 and 12 gauge material it's not so easy. Since I believe I'll be doing this fabricating stuff until I fall over dead, I decided to help myself out and buy Eastwood's 4-Inch bender (
http://www.eastwood.com/4-inch-metal-bender.html).
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It tells you it will bend 3/8" thick steel, and it will, but only a strip 3/4" wide. Here's the spec breakdown:
- 3/4” wide, max. = 3/8” thick
- 2” wide, max. = 1/4” thick
- 4” wide, max. = 3/16” thick
I doubt I will ever bend something thicker than 3/16" thick, so I think I'll be fine.
I wasn't fully satisfied with the one die supplied as it does a minimum 1/4 inch radius. However, I've already though about how I can make new dies for thinner material with a smaller radius. I think it will be pretty easy. Here's the supplied die:
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I didn't like the cheesy paint and the rough look of the die surface, so I stripped off the paint with a wire wheel.
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From the texture of it, it looks like cast steel to me. On thick material the texture will matter little. But, on thinner stuff, it will get pressed into the metal surface. I decided to use a fine file and Emory cloth to clean it up.
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I left the ridge of the die a little rough along the ridge centerline, so as to have a good line of sight along the ridge, and easy placement by eye. Here's how the machine works:
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It has this scale up top to tell you how much you move the die when you crank the handle, but right now I don't see that as very useful. Mostly, you're concerned with the angle between the faces when you bend a bracket. Tomorrow I'll re-enforce my portable work table, mount the machine and try out some test pieces. I can already see that having square faces to measure to when setting a part up, will be lacking.
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Upward and onward, eh? . . . . .