Metal bending guide

[rs6mra]

Hi,

I bought myself the Sealey Metal bender so that I can create certain structure/s or support for the garden.
Here is the link to the item: https://ffx.co.uk/products/sealey-sealey-pbf04-metal-bender-floor-mounting-32631

I have tried to create a 'U' structure using 12mm rebar that are 1.5m and 2.5m long but they are far from perfect.
I would like to fine-tune this or perfect it and then go on to create a rose arch that would be about 1.5m wide. Similar to this (although this is in 2 parts):
https://www.harrodhorticultural.com/roman-garden-arch-pid8486.html


Are there any tips for ensuring I get the U shape near perfect?

 

[Agent_zed]

I may be wrong but that tool looks like its for forming small bends not a big wide bend. I assume you are bending and having move it a bit and bend some more as you go.

If i was doing this I'd get a big board or an old door and form an arch out of wood or even just wooden blocks screwed to the board quite close together and bend it over that. Make it a bit sharper bend than what you want so you can stretch it past so it springs back to where you want it.
12mm bar is thin enough to pull it over a former by hand.

 

[TRITON]

I think you want something more like this
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cla...VupNQBh00eQxqEAQYAiABEgKLTvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Or something like this for just rolling
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/39421830...ta=enc:1KrUo3MG5SsKG4Eig_PRmxA79&gad_source=1

I also think 12mm rebar is a bit extreme. Something like mild steel a third of that thickness would shape better.

 

[niall Y]

I had a similar challenge with bending rebar into a large circular form. I chalked out the profile on the floor of my workshop as a pattern for the curve. and kept checking against this as work progressed

The curve was formed incrementally, by laying the bar across the step in my anvil where the beak meets the bed, and hammering with the flat pein of my hammer. It is easy enough to bend back by hand., if you overbend

Any slight spiralling of the curve can be corrected by laying the bend on the lawn and hammering lightly from behind.

Edit
I believe the tool that would make this task easier would be a 'roller bender.'

 

[ChaiLatte]

I may be wrong but that tool looks like its for forming small bends not a big wide bend.

The bender is a distant Chinese relative of the US Hossfield bender.

For large radius bends, you do not pull the stock around the former, but modulate your handle yanking so as to produce the bend incrementally.

To fine tune the sharper bends, put a chalk mark on the rebar that lines up with some fixed point of the bender. Pull the bend and mark where the handle finishes. Remove the material and measure how far out it is from the desired figure. Adjust the chalk mark on the second piece in view of this and try again.

The advice about the necessity of a template is well given. A large piece of cardboard with an arc drawn on it with string, pencil and drawing pin and then cut out with scissors is another variation on the theme.