Fire Wood Processor

[Roadracer_Al]

(03-18-2016, 10:07 AM)f350ca Wrote: WOW Thanks Al,
Was hoping for photo's sure didn't expect to get plans.

My pleasure. Glad you can make use of them.

(03-18-2016, 10:07 AM)f350ca Wrote: You have a hole drilled in the body for a handle, when your bending tube do you think the two handles would work for 5/8 tube, some of  my runs will be long so might be hard to get to the vice?

Not sure I'm following this sentence. Do you mean make the clamping tab "L" shaped so the bender can be positioned differently for long runs? Yes, that would be cool.

Or, do you mean making this a portable field bender instead of a vise-mounted deal? More like one of these:



IMHO, it would be pretty hard to use solo. Perhaps with a helper. Don't forget that the handle swings in direct relationship to the bend being made - the handles may be 180* opposed and 6' apart. If you can reach both handles and put enough "Oooomph" on it to produce a bend under those conditions, I'd hate to run into you in a dark alley.

(03-18-2016, 10:07 AM)f350ca Wrote: The groove you have in the body for the tube is half the tube dia deep, I was thinking of going a little deeper with straight sides to support the tube. The dies for my pipe bender do that. Do you think its a good idea or will it be hard to get the tube out after its bent, and is it necessary.

While it may look like you can bend more than 180* on this bender, and yes, you can... but you can't get the tube out if you do. You have to have more than 180 to over-bend and account for spring back, but it doesn't need as much as I have given it.

The deep walls may also help keep the tube more round during bending. The tube will absolutely expand around the "neutral axis" as you bend it. I'm not sure if it will stick or not. Here's my thinking - it's easy enough to make the inner die have deep walls, and it's easy enough to trim the walls off if they cause a problem. You'd only have to remake the follower roller.

(03-18-2016, 10:07 AM)f350ca Wrote: Like the roller follower, rather than a shoe, Has to be a LOT easier to pull around.

Yes, the idea was to both ease the effort, and to make it a "pull" bender which holds the shape of the tube better.

(03-18-2016, 10:07 AM)f350ca Wrote: Keeping the follower aligned hadn't crossed my mind. What if I made the centre pin big enough to bolt the arms to. Say 3 inch dia. That would allow me to hold the blank on the outside while I bore that hole, then grab the blank in that hole while I cut the outside profile. Was thinking of having to make a mandrel to hole it for the outside cut.
Once again THANKS.
Have someone else project I need to do today, hope to get at this tomorrow.

YES! I like that idea. This is a 3" radius bender, so maybe a 2" center pin would be the right size, but absolutely, maintaining the arms in parallel would greatly improve the quality of the bend. That would make another really excellent and very "do-able" modification to the bender.

Hope this helps.