How to Make a Metal Bender

This project is a metal bender that I have made to bend stainless steel bars. It can also be used with another materials like metal wires. The bending tool can be replaced without cutting and welding, so if it breaks or you need to bend other size of materials you can make another tool.

I hope you like it!

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Step 1: Materials and Tools

Materials:

• Carbon steel flat bar 5/8’’ x 1/8’’
• Flat bar 1-1/4’’ x 3/16’’
• Flat bar 2-1/2’’ x 1/4’’
• Round bar diam. 15mm.
• Round bar diam. 7mm (feel free to adapt for the material you already have).

Tools:

• Tig welder
• Metal lathe
• Saw for metal
• Drill machine
• Measure tape
• Hand grinder
• Gas torch
• Metal container for water

Step 2: Making the Rotating Arm

I start by making the rotating arm, so I cut 5 pieces of the flat bar 1-1/4’’ x 3/16’’

with 80mm length and stack it up to weld it in one large piece. To weld it I’ve used the TIG.

After that I cut the 15mm diameter round bar with 75mm length to use it as a handle. I weld it in the midle of the smaller face.

Next, I drilled two 12mm diameter holes and one of 7mm. These holes will be used with the static tool and for the moving pins.

Step 3: The Base

For the base I cut the Flat bar 2-1/2’’ x 1/4’’ with 140mm (5-1/2’’) length, and drill the hole for the static tool and 4 holes to fix the bender if needed.

To increase the area of contact of the axle and reducing it worn, I cut a piece of the flat bar 1-1/4’’ x 3/16’’ with 70mm length, weld it and drill the same hole of the tool.

Cut two pieces of the flat bar 5/8’’ x 1/8’’ with the same length of the base. In the first time I cut each of these bars in two pieces so I could lock the tool with a pin, this idea does not go well, as you could see in the video.

Weld all the parts.

Step 4: Making the Tool and Pin

The tool is the part that will hold the material you need to bend. To make it I reduce de diameter of the 15mm bar to 12mm in length of 50mm using the lathe. And after that I cut the bar, ending with a total length of 70mm (50mm with the 12mm diameter and 20mm with 15mm in diameter).

I’ve made a groove in the tip of the tool to fit the material that needed to be bend. To make it I used the hand grinder. I also made a chamfer on the bottom of the tool, so it do not let the axle rotate.

In way to make the tool stronger, I quenched and temper it. For this process I heat it up until gets orange red, and then cool it down in the water. To temper I heat it until get blue and let cool down slowly.

For the pin I cut a 7mm diameter metal rod with a length of 35mm. You can also make a larger pin to use in the other hole. The idea is to make this machine versatile so you can bend all kind of material shapes.

Step 5: Ready to Bend

Now you just need to put all parts together and you are ready to bend. You can use some kind of metal tube to increase the length of the handle, this way it gets easier to shape stringer materials.

Hope you like the tutorial, and if you have any question I would love to answer. Click here and follow us on YouTube as well for more content!

Thank you.