How to radius bend angle iron?

• Wheatfarm.com

There is a metal working device called a stretching-shrinking machine. They can be large or small, hand held or stationary, manual or powered. Although not common, they can be found in some fabrication shops. To bend angle stock one flange is stretched or shrunk, and the adjacent flange bends along with the flange being worked. Achieving and maintaining the desired bend is completely operator dependent, making it possible to produce varying radius bends. This tool can also be used to form various other types/shapes of stock, it will bend flat stock edge-ways(“the hard way”), and it is sometimes used to help form complex curves in sheet stock. Several companies have made these devices, “Marchant” has been in business many years, is probably the biggest in their field, and they make a variety of models. I included a like to their website. Good luck...Al English

• Marchant Metal Forming Tools

You use a normal set of sheet metal rolls with a adjustable slot in one end for the web of the angle. The radius comes from the back shaft just like rolling sheet metal. There are two sets of guide side rollers that keep side twist out of the angle as it's being rolled. You roll more angle than is required and trim to circumfrance to get the preroll flat spot out, usually cut on a chop saw with a clamped on spreader bar. Angle iron does not back roll easy.

Ear plugs are a must! Leather gloves are a must as its very easy to pinch a finger or two. Only rolls with a reverse and stomp bar shut off should be used.

A radius gauge is made from a piece of sheet metal for roll adjustment.

There is an art to rolling angle iron and not everyone can do it. Also each piece of angle should be from the same supplier so that the same tolerances are used to help roll the angle uniform on making duplicates.

I've only seen angle iron rollers on 6" and larger rolls as it takes alot of torque to roll angle.

T_Bone

From Jermey's post I thought he was asking what it took to cold roll angle iron in a production enviroment. So thats what I explained.

As the thickness of the web increases and the radius shrinks problems trying to roll angle iron and keep both webs flat when done increases.

T_Bone

Ya I rolled a few thousand feet many moons ago.

Na there sore all the time now... lol

It's gettin where I hate to even bring up the "old" way we did things as technology has sped right by. In a new modern shop and I could not believe the changes in a shop of just 20yrs earlier. They had cut production time by 1/3.

T_Bone

At least it works that way for me. Some of my large stationary woodworking machines are older than I am, maybe even as old as you. (They ARE electric powered.) Pretty inefficient by today's standards but when you aren't doing production work the low acquisition cost more than offsets the lower production. Seems like most of this list would have the same experience.

Yes they will do both inside and outside but you need additional set of roll guides. There wasn't much of a demand for inside rolled in our trade so it was a gripe to set up each time when it was called for. Getting the iron to lay flat when finished was the hard part.
We did alot of round high pressure duct work and was about the only shop set up to that. When I was there we ran about 55 men in the shop and here not long ago they were producing the same quanitiy with 9 men but with some very expensive equipment.

T_Bone

Ref The Blacksmtihs Cookbook. Recipes in Iron.
By Francis Whitaker
ISBN 0-939415-00-3