Bending Mild Steel Flat bar

I think you will find that aluminium is a better conductor than Steel

I need help im doin homework and I need help im not sure about some questions

can u bend it by hand?

Do u need a vice and do u need to heat it first?

Dan

I have no difficulty heating flat or round bar with my sievert propane gas torch whilst holding it in a vice, the only problem I have is stopping the edge of the jaws leaving a mark on the inedge of the bend.

Martin P

That is one of the worst stories I have heard about cruelty to machines, it must have been a big machine bolted to the floor to resist the force you applied via a 6' lever too.

I presume the milling machine and vice was someone else's property!

I don't understand what you mean with 'ran out of scrap steel', or how it is connected to the part you are bending.

Ian P

it would certainly distort - when 'welding' aluminium using the wire method I found that clamps used left imprints in the aluminium even though it was far from red hot.

Neil

Guys don't bother answering the old part of the thread. Dan has resurected it to help with his homework, though I expect it may be past his bed time now and too late to help

Dan, it really depends on the size of your bar. a bit of 1mm x 5mm can be bent cold by hand but a bit of 10x50 would need a lot more effort and heat would help.

J

Edited By JasonB on 09/09/2015 20:05:16

Something I have done to bend heavy section steel when I did not have access to any sort of torch was to bring out my trusty arc welder and run an arc backward and forwards on the spot where I wanted to make a bend and then bending was easy when it reached red heat. I was just bending steel to be submerged in concrete for foundations of a house but if I wanted it to be pretty an angle grinder would have cleaned it up.

Arc welder vote number 2

Puts about 2500 degrees into the arc point