Long sad tale about bending the archbars

[DavidT]

I spent about 2 1/2 hours building the archbar bender from page 20 in the A3 book. All the time I was wondering if mounting it in the vise would work. I got the die parts made from 1 1/4 sq CR. I am making 1 1/2" trucks. For the mounting pieces to the vise I had a thought of using the original pieces from the vise. Ha! forgot they are hardened. Make the pieces from flat bar. Mount it all on the vise. Get a scrap of 3/16 by 3/4. Fool! Your little voice was right. Kozo bends BRASS that is 1/16 and 3/32 thick. !/8 and 3/16 STEEL! go ahead and laugh. Then I thought, we have a manual arbor press at work, maybe it will work. Then I saw the orange thing in the corner. Right, new 12 ton press recently on sale at Harbor Freight. Pull-pull-pull metal bends. Now I only have to get the die parts to stay in place and I can start to bend all 48 pieces (4 pairs). Pass on the stories someone may learn.

[IronMan]

Hello David,

Yea , I know how you feel a while back when I bent mine, I made the kozo bender no problem, just needed to heat the pieces first. But I did not allow for the bends in my measurement, hence they are all too short and scrap. Live and learn. If you are using CR it will need to be heated first, HR I am not sure about. Just let us know how you managed, but by time you get to the 48 th one you will be a pro!
Good Luck
IronMan

[Bill Holland]

I'm going to use brass like Kozo, but again mine is for 1" scale.

[IronMan]

Hey, Bill

That should be no problem, one question do you have a difficult time finding the right material thickness for your project ? 1.5 is easy just double up but 1" sounds like more work,to get to the right size?

Cheers,
IronMan

[Bill Holland]

I simply multiply by 1.351351 and then pick the closest matching stock. It has so far worked out very well. Allways a standard size close by.

[Jamie Harris]

I used my Diacro finger brake to do all of the bending. I did have to anneal the 3/16" thick bars first though.

Jamie