First off, I'm a DIY kind of guy that believes in doing as much as I can myself, if I can fashion a way to get it done I will! I'm sure I'm not the first person to do it this way but I can't remember if/when I've seen it before. I'm building a winch mounting plate for The Warhorse and I had envisioned it being bent and then welded at certain points for strength but I don't have a bender and I'm not about to pay some shop an outrageous rate to do it for me plus... where's the fun in that! Lol. I do have a 5" metal bender for my bench vise but I don't think it would've cut it even if the jaws were tall enough to give it a try so I got to thinking and I figured if I cut a relief with the angle grinder (loaded with a thin cutting disc) that could maybe work! I've never tried this before, let's see what happens!
After cutting the reliefs I chucked it in the bench vise with a heavy piece of angle iron (to span the whole bend), gave it a go and it bent nicely right up until the 45 degree mark which is when the edges of the relief touched each other...
So I grabbed the grinder and cut another relief along the bend but now that I saw the flaw in my plan I used a worn grinding disc to open up the relief cuts for the others bends.
I tossed it back in the vise and viola! 90 percent of the way there! A little persuasion with the BFH and it was now sitting at 90 degrees! (not pictured)
That's all folks, class dismissed! Get out there and bend some metal!
Good idea! I have to make a mount for my winch and will probably cut the bracket and weld it. But, your idea may work for this. Thanks!
Thanks! Still requires welding but not nearly as much (just on the inside of the bends) AND it gives nice rounded corners! I'm giving myself a pat on the back for this one! Lol
Subject: 
December 3rd 2021, 8:34 pm
