Thread: bending small rods part 2

A few weeks ago I was asking about the best way to bend small rods. I took some of your suggestions and overbuilt a fixture using random bits of stuff I had in the shop.
Here's the original thread: Need help bending small rods

Now, my friend needs to make rods with one of three lengths. He really likes the fixture and asked if I could modify it.
I tossed around all kinds of ideas. The easiest for me to build would have been boring the bottom channel deeper and drilling two holes to insert rod stock as stops. The down side is that he would have to rely on inserting a stop for 90% of the work.
I wanted something that would not require extra parts that could get lost, have readily visible settings, positive repeatable stops, and easy to operate. It also needed to fit in the existing block without too much work.
I considered a slide going across the block but the bolts were in the way. Then, I looked at toggles from the back of the block. A hundred other things came to mind. I finally settled on a spindle setup. Lacking reamers and small bore measureing tools, I bored the block and turned some bar stock to fit. The spindle was oversized then polished to fit. The large diameter set the toggle back far enough to clear the rods being bent.
It gave me a little practice drawing parts and building them to spec.
My daily driver died on Sunday. My truck died yesterday, and I'm down to driving my 72 Imperial. I have to get the cars running this weekend so that meat knocking the fixture out last night after work. Sadly, that means I butchered the parts and didn't have the extra time to give them a nice finish. Luckily, this is for a good friend and not a paying job.

Other than outsourcing the whole thing, how would you guys modify the old fixture?

Please keep in mind that I'm not quite good enough to be considered an apprentice. In fact, I still haven't found the forward half of the last parting tool I tried using. It's in the shop somewhere because I heard it bounce around.
I lurk on this board to try to learn what I can from people who have forgotten far more than I'll ever know.

Remember if you don't find the front half of your parting tool, its not that it broke, it's simply been swallowed by a worm hole in space time. Same as what opens up every time you drop something small ;-)

Drawings of the parts would help, - I'm lost as to where the jig has to be modified

Originally Posted by Limy Sami

Drawings of the parts would help, - I'm lost as to where the jig has to be modified

Here's the original jig:



If you look at this pic of the modified block you can see the bore running through the bottom. That's where we need varying lengths.



You put the rod stock in the block and make the bend. Then, you turn the rod so the bend points up and stuff it in the tall slot to make the second bend. That one can be to the left or right.
In all, we can make 6 different parts now that I've completed the modifications.

I just wish I had time to clean it up and make it look properly finished.

Man, the camera phone really washed out the pics. That spindle is polished to a nice shine (not that you'd see it). In the pic it looks worn out.

feets,

Howzabout resizing your pics to around 800X600.
Having to scroll 6" to the right to read text is annoying as hell!

Nice little bender!


Rex