How To Bend Stainless Steel Sheet By Hand

If you re bending 0 020 thick material use a 0 020 radius.

How to bend stainless steel sheet by hand.

You can buy steel bars in the optimal length for hand bending from some online retailers or buy longer bars either online or from your local hardware store and cut off a piece of the desired length. The slack between the wipe die and the punch plays an important role in getting a good result. To cut the steel bar use a pair of bolt cutters preferably about 24 inches 60 cm long. Using protective gloves hold the free end of the metal sheet with one hand and with the other hand use a mallet or hammer to begin bending the sheet down and around the curved radius of the wood form.

Now that you know your bend allowance take your protractor and draw a clear line with your marker across the point at which you will bend your sheet metal. Measure and mark the bend location along one edge of the stainless steel sheet with the tape measure and awl. This method tends to damage the tubing however. Here s a good rule of thumb for most materials.

In other words if you re bending 1 8 sheet use a tool with a 1 8 radius to form the inside of the bend. I buy steel tube in 20 feet sections. Wipe bending or edge bending is another way to bend sheet metal edges. Start at one end and slowly work down to the other.

I predicted that i needed about 3 feet of leverage to bend the thin wall square tube i found. I surreptitiously push on the section to determine if i can bend it. It is important to make sure that the sheet is properly pushed onto the wipe die. Then use your bend allowance to draw your second bend line the intervening distance between your bend lines bend radius.

I can feel the tubing start to give and by sighting along the tube i can see how much the tube has bent. Place a second bend mark on the edge of the stainless steel sheet parallel to the edge you just marked. The inside bend radius should be equal to the thickness of the material that you re forming.