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Bending meal logos over a tube?

A

AlainBT

Plastic
Joined
Jun 18, 2018
New guy here.

I'm working on a few road and MTB projects where the refinished frames need a custom logo.

The logos are various flat metals between 1/16" to 1/8".

I need to have them bent around the head tube which is around 1.5" in diameter.

Question is what are my options?

Is there a die press that I can do this with a bench vice?
 
Simple steel bar the dia of your tube or a nats less to allow for spring back and then simply like the above poster recommends, heavy rubber, i use conveyor belting from a quarry. But the harder the better. May need to contain the rubber in a steel vessel so it can not ooze out. its kinda like hydro forming, just the rubbers a realy thick oil in effect.

Forming into rubber takes a lot of tonnage, but for typical bike badges, a few tons of press should easily do it.

If there cast badges though, it would probably pay you to give them a good anneal first.
 
Make a male and female die and squeeze them in a vice, lots of clearance, not a precision operation. I would probably make my dies out of wood or plastic like delrin/hdpe.
 
kustomizingkid said:
Make a male and female die and squeeze them in a vice, lots of clearance, not a precision operation. I would probably make my dies out of wood or plastic like delrin/hdpe.
Click to expand...

Are there places that sell the male/female dies?

I'm not a professional machinist by any means. Please advise if there are other words I need to use in my search.
 
AlainBT said:
Are there places that sell the male/female dies?

I'm not a professional machinist by any means. Please advise if there are other words I need to use in my search.
Click to expand...

So metal springs back when you bend it, so say you have a 1.5" diameter tube your die will need a 1.4" diameter radius so that you apply pressure and then it will spring back to 1.5" diameter radius... So take a block of wood and trace a slightly smaller than tube diameter cricle onto the block of wood. Then cut a semi circle or 3/4 of a circle out with a jig saw or other cutting tool. Then to make the female die essentially trace the same radius but you have to add relif, this is where the metal logo "fits" when you sandwich it all together. So scribe the line for the female portion and cut that out. Then you do a test bend, if its too tight you sand some material away from the die. If the radius is too tight you scrap the wood and start over... too loose you sand the die or cut it until it produces the desired result.
 
The problem with making the female out of metal or even harder plastics is it will get chewed up or spoil any details in the badges, rubber will form a polished part and leave the surface totally untouched.
 
adama said:
The problem with making the female out of metal or even harder plastics is it will get chewed up or spoil any details in the badges, rubber will form a polished part and leave the surface totally untouched.
Click to expand...

Yup, use the inside from the tread area, so your bicycle tag doesn't read
"Firestone Town & country"......:D
 
adama said:
The problem with making the female out of metal or even harder plastics is it will get chewed up or spoil any details in the badges, rubber will form a polished part and leave the surface totally untouched.
Click to expand...

I totally agree... but sourcing the right rubber and all that is more involved the hacking up a piece of 2x4, definitely a better option.
 
kustomizingkid said:
So metal springs back when you bend it, so say you have a 1.5" diameter tube your die will need a 1.4" diameter radius so that you apply pressure and then it will spring back to 1.5" diameter radius... So take a block of wood and trace a slightly smaller than tube diameter cricle onto the block of wood. Then cut a semi circle or 3/4 of a circle out with a jig saw or other cutting tool. Then to make the female die essentially trace the same radius but you have to add relif, this is where the metal logo "fits" when you sandwich it all together. So scribe the line for the female portion and cut that out. Then you do a test bend, if its too tight you sand some material away from the die. If the radius is too tight you scrap the wood and start over... too loose you sand the die or cut it until it produces the desired result.
Click to expand...

Use the end grain of the board not the side too. That will allow a lot more force without crushing the wood.
 
So metal springs back when you bend it, so say you have a 1.5" diameter tube your die will need a 1.4" diameter radius so that you apply pressure and then it will spring back to 1.5" diameter radius... So take a block of wood and trace a slightly smaller than tube diameter cricle onto the block of wood. Then cut a semi circle or 3/4 of a circle out with a jig saw or other cutting tool. Then to make the female die essentially trace the same radius but you have to add relif, this is where the metal logo "fits" when you sandwich it all together. So scribe the line for the female portion and cut that out. Then you do a test bend, if its too tight you sand some material away from the die. If the radius is too tight you scrap the wood and start over... too loose you sand the die or cut it until it produces the desired result.
Click to expand...

I'd say this is the best route to take.

I'd bet you could use a hole saw, and end up reasonably close with your punch and die, with the hole saw itself providing the proper clearance.

Staple a little .015" urethane press brake die film (ebay) onto at least the die, and you'll probably be in business.
 
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