Bendarc/Crownarc

[Mike8560]

June with the bendarc you will have no kinking of the tubing.
They work fine with the square tubes they indent the inner flat. Wall to allow for the shorter radius even.

[Peppy]

Who say "us guys" don't use a center measurement?  :P
When using a bendarc that is a most important measurement...   

Sorry! I don't mean to lump everybody in the same pot. A billion ways to skin a boat after all. I guess I misunderstood. I thought you used the bend stick thing to figure out the length of the leg and then your formula worked out the rest. I saw a youtube demonstration doing it that way.

Every spring I bend several new frames for people who thought their convertible tops were winter covers. "I can't believe it couldn't hold up 1,000 pounds of snow!" I don't worry about the bends being much different. I do have a few wheels of different sizes but 95% of the time I use the 9" one. I try to be as close as I can but I don't freak out about it. 

With my medieval ply wood wheel I can't bend anything smaller than 12" diameter. Even that starts to crush the tube a bit.

[jeandeau]

re:With my medieval ply wood wheel I can't bend anything smaller than 12" diameter.

Is that diameter or radius? 
correctly, in engineering, design and most trades, diameter is only expressed when speaking of a complete circle.  When portions of a circle are the matter of discusion, even if it is 359 degrees, radius is always used.  Radius describes the size of an arc. Diameter describes the  dimension across a CIRCLE.  An 18" circular form generates a 9" arc.  A 6" conduit bender generates a 6" arc.  Respecting the conduit bender, it is evident to anyone who has seen one, that no complete circle is involved and hence, 6" obviously refers to the radius of the tool and the result.  In speaking of a "form" it is not obvious if the form itself is a circle or a portion of a circle.  If you are making 6" radius bends with a wood form you're doing pretty good.  Do you have hardwood forms with the path shaped by a router? 

[Peppy]

In speaking of a "form" it is not obvious if the form itself is a circle or a portion of a circle.  If you are making 6" radius bends with a wood form you're doing pretty good.  Do you have hardwood forms with the path shaped by a router? 

When I said wheel I meant that it is a circle. I've never measured it but I'm pretty sure it has 360 degrees. When I said diameter I meant the diameter is 12", which would make the radius 6". When I said it was plywood I meant that it was made of plywood. When I said medieval I meant that it's old and not fancy or refined in anyway. There is no routed groove, although there is a groove made through use and bending the odd bar with snaps in it.

The 12" wheel doesn't do a perfect job and like I said it crushes the bar a bit.

[Darren Henry]

 :D  Easy Peppy; don't get all un-Canadian now.  :D 

Seriously though; If you don't have a lathe at work you can just put a bolt through the centre and mount it in your drill press. Then just use a 1/2 round rasp or a piece of tubing with some course sandpaper spray glued to it to make a channel.

Take a look at that Princess Auto bender in my old post. If you bolted an idler wheel (again small groove) on a piece of angle iron, and then bolted the angle iron down with the wheel; You'd have a poor boys bend arc. Applying the force at the bend where it is trying to stretch will keep it from collapsing on the inside of the bend.

[Peppy]

Yikes Darren, your right! I may get a visit from the Ontario Politeness Police! I'll be sorry then! I bristle when people get all engineer-y on me. A good portion of our customers are engineers and they're (for the most part) pompus jerks who can barely stand talking with someone as lowly as me. My favorite part about building a top for an engineer is throwing out his meticulously drawn sketch of how he wants his top to be and holding up the frame till it looks good.

Still, sorry to ruffle feathers. I'm sure there's a lot of wonderfully nice engineering types out there. I hope to meet some some day.   

(As a side note: my last name is Genner. And aparently Genner is short for, you guessed it, enGenneer!)

Back on topic; my wheel is goodly grooved now and I have no problems with it. I guess its the poor-poor mans bendarc. As for the lever handle dooie if I need to bend short bars I just slide a scrap tube over the leg for added leverage.   

[Darren Henry]

if I need to bend short bars I just slide a scrap tube over the leg for added leverage.

I think the handle is more about where the force gets applied than how much of it.

[Miami Mike]

June, talk to Jeff>>>> let him know weunski sent you. Not sure if he will cut you a deal or not but it's worth a try. Also I will keep an eye out for ya.

866 805 8005

[scarab29]

How about this one. Looks like the one Rich has but woden and lass $ . I used it when I took the course but havn't bought one yet either.  http://shop.marinecanvastraining.com/1bend-ritebender.aspx

[fragged8]

hiya

y' its exactly the same but with the northcoast one you also get the frame tool which is invaluable
and also an additional dog leg former ,

you could make the frame tool but for the extra $30 or so is it worth it ?

Rich

[Mike8560]

June, talk to Jeff>>>> let him know weunski sent you. Not sure if he will cut you a deal or not but it's worth a try. Also I will keep an eye out for ya.

866 805 8005

mike any deals on the blocks and rollers? Mine are prety old and started to flake apart.

[Mike8560]

Every spring I bend several new frames for people who thought their convertible tops were winter covers. "I can't believe it couldn't hold up 1,000 pounds of snow!" 
[/quote]

peppey remeber thoose posey early 80s baylinrer cheesey window frames well I saw a guy one year who
left his cockpit cover on as a winter cover and the weight of the snow was too much for the frame and all the glass broke.

[Darren Henry]

Question for folks like Scarab and Rich who use the bend-rite style of bender:

they advertise that you can also crown with them. How do you do that? and is there a second piece of wood not shown in the ads?

Right now Thor put mammoth skin on cave floor-- stand on tubing--- grab leg -- go UGH!!.  Move back and repeat and repeat until Thor wish arms longer -- not so skinny.

[Peppy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctY4hvK9eTQ

Here's a guy using it. At about 3:20 he crowns the bar.

Is that piece of wood really $200? Forget making boat tops, I'm going to start making benders!

[Darren Henry]

Thanks Peppy. I always wondered how they did that. It is easier than what I've always done. I can't see me paying $180 for the recipe that comes with the $20 piece of wood I could build ,though.