How to bend a steel angle without a machine using a simple device

Bent steel and especially hot-rolled angles have great rigidity and mechanical strength when exposed to bending forces. Therefore, it is quite difficult to bend it manually along a circular arc. But by making an extremely simple, one might say, elementary device from practically scrap metal, this labor-intensive operation can be performed with high precision in 10-15 minutes. Moreover, any physically strong person can do it.

Will need

• steel billet 17×70×140 mm from a plate;
• tape measure, steel ruler and marker;
• Bulgarian;
• bench vice;
• a section of railway rail;
• welding equipment;
• a heavy hammer or a small sledgehammer;
• hot rolled steel angle.

The process of manufacturing a fixture and bending a steel angle on it

From a steel blank with a thickness of at least 17 mm and dimensions in plan of 70 × 140 mm, after marking, we cut off two fragments of 50 mm in length with a grinder.

We draw a line 30 mm long in the center of the two fragments and use a grinder to cut grooves along the markings with a width slightly larger than the thickness of the flange of the corner that is to be bent along a circular arc.

We weld the fragments with slots in a circular direction in the transverse direction to the surface of the head of the railway rail at a certain distance from each other so that the slots are directed upward and are located on the same line. Having beaten off the slag, we make sure that the seams are continuous, without pores or inclusions of slag.

We place the steel angle with one shelf in the slots and begin to strike evenly on the upper shelf of the angle, mainly closer to the line of convergence of the shelves and in the middle between the stops with the slot.

In this case, it is necessary to move the corner, exposing all new sections of it to the blows. If the curvature on any part is insufficient, then move the corner in the opposite direction and repeat the bending operation.

Having performed this operation several times, depending on the size of the corner and the degree of bending, we achieve the planned bend radius.

If the guide shelf is bent, then we place the corner with this shelf on the horizontal surface of the massive base and straighten it with the same hammer until the shelf is completely straightened.

Of course, this simple device requires some physical effort and time, but the result is always excellent, right up to obtaining an arc of half a circle from a rectilinear corner.

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