tube denting die using home made press and die

[hardtail69]

Denting you say ? yep as part of a build experiment we wanted to see if we could simply and cleanly dent some 1.5 inch DOM tube instead of having to bend it to get two bolts in between the tubes. as in the following picture.

I made this die by boring out a solid piece of steel to a few thousandths over the size of the tube and then welding it into a piece of channel. That way i had a stable surface to use my band saw to cut the tube in half. all I had to do was follow the c channel edge and I got a very good line. It also served to reinforce the tube I built and became a part of the die. Then I simply ground it flat with a belt sander and viola one half of the die.

I repeated that procedure for the top halves of the die that would cover the ends of the tube. I clamped them down on both ends so I would not get a lot of bowing when I crushed the tube in the area I wanted to. Then I made the actual pushing part of the die. You can see it here.

It is a cylinder made on the lathe with the proper hole sized for the press I was going to use and I welded two wings to spread the force over the entire push bar.. On the first one I made the push bar too sharp and completely split the tubing, So I rounded off the push bar and it was a lot better, but I needed more ooomph. so I brought back the 12 ton bottle jack and bought a 20 ton air over hydraulics unit. Soooooo much easier lol. It is working fine now. I hope this helps. You can look up the press I used this die in cause we made that from scratch as well. Hey when you got no money you use your time

[Altair]

Thanks hardtail69! We've added your Tube Denting Die to our Brakes and Presses category,
as well as to your builder page: hardtail69's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Tube Denting Die by hardtail69

tags: die, press brake