General welding questions that dont fit in TIG, MIG, Stick, or Certification etc.
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I need to bend a 5mm SS rod in a 45cm diameter ring.
My problem is I do not have a bender or O/A system.
Is there a way that I can do this cold?
I have a cylinder that's about 39cm in diameter. If I weld the end of the rod onto the cylinder will I be able to bent the rod without snapping it?
Tx
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That shouldnt be a problem.
With the spring back your cylinder is probably in the right range.

Dont cut the rod before and you'll bend it easily by hand if you have like half meter excess.
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I do this often, bending a 3,2mm 308 welding rod into a circle of about 9cm radius. (For a particular weld where I cannot feed rod, I lay it in place, tack it in, and do a lay-wire technique over it.) I'd guess my form (a pipe flange) has about a 12 cm OD, or 6cm radius. I'll clamp it to the table, and tack one end of the rod to it, grab the other end of the rod in vise-grips for a handle, and pull hard as I work it around the circle. The spring-back is usually close enough for my purpose, and it's quite smoothly round.

I'd think you should be able to do similar with 5mm, but expect more spring-back. It won't crack. Experiment with the size of the form, working from "too small", as you can relax a hoop by hand.

Steve S
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Tx will try that.
Will post results ;)
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