 ArtMetalsocial networking for the metal arts |
|
suggestions
KevinW -
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - 1:24pm
 Hey all, I'm trying to price a job ,railing, scroll work to fit a 16' and 10' dia. I've included this pic because it is the only type of that work i've done. To do this I heated up a straight pannell of scrolls maby 3 1/2' long with the torch bit by bit and bent it arround a jig. My question is what are my options. There will be around 100' of railing (probably 3/4" sq. material for scrolls) and that seems like a lot of oxy/act to me. any helps appriciated.  Rich, I'd do the tops and
KevinW -
Friday, August 28, 2009 - 8:26am
Rich, I'd do the tops and bottoms in the forge for shure, but its not big enough for the s-scrolls, they would be about 20" wide and 28" long Could the bottle jack press be built to push evenly accross 20 inches of scroll work, the scroll would cross a sraight line 4 times. How many tons of bottle jack push would it take to do that anyhow? What about a set of rolls? KevinW  bending grills
Giusseppe -
Friday, August 28, 2009 - 1:03pm
There are a few options ... all cold We mostly use curved plates and press grill sections as in a sandwich (20 ton H-press or sometimes 200 ton in extreme cases) For whole grills we use a ram and an arrangement of 4x4 box section to form an open H type press The latter can develop twists and a subtle control can be achieved with heavy timbers and a tractor .... sometimes simply pushing down with the forks until the tractor lifts or driving one side along the top beam ...this tends to accommodate varying thicknesses of section without any marking and we often do this to polished and coloured stainless. Occasionally we have gone to a heavy engineer and used loosely arranged power rolls or a heavy folding press but this is only when we have needed a complex curve for sweeping stair grills. |
|
ArtMetal
Kevin, That sounds like a
Kevin,
That sounds like a great job for a Hossfeld bender, particularly the hydraulically-assisted one. In the absence of a Hossfeld, I generally heat things in the gas forge and bend them to a pattern using scrolling forks. For a large diameter like 10 feet, a lot of it could be done cold, I'd think, and only the heavier top cap and bottom rail would need to be heated.
Another option would be to rig a simple bending pres suing a hydraulic bottle jack and I-beam frame. Set a couple of dozer track pins or other solid rounds about 3" diameter a couple of feet apart and use the jack to push against the bar between them. You can get remarkable accuracy this way.
Rich