We tried every way we knew how. Nothing seemed to work. Well, we are makers. Let’s make it work.
It took Sheri and I over two hours to bend this circle. Sheri damaged her wrist and I almost blew out my elbow.
There has to be a better way. Maybe Buck’s modification can give us some ideas.
Jeff, being Jeff, slapped together a solution in no time (well, a few hours and two trips to Home Depot).
Sometimes theories die at the hands of reality. While this looks cool and was fun to build, Buck’s drill was about to give up the ghost.
Greg suggested we try a pneumatic drill. While we might get that to work, I figured I could extend the lever arms enough to turn even the most stubborn aluminum pipe.
First step was to take off the welded 3/8″ socket.
Next I cut four extender arms and a twist top. Prep the areas for welding and get to work.
Ok, NOW we are ready to bend some pipe.
What took an hour with two people can now be completed in 10 minutes with one. Woot!
Again with the theories! Jeff drilled all the way through the major die and put a grade 8 bolt through. Snap!
Time to pull out the duct tape to hold the new bolt in (since I can’t tighten the nut).
Looks like we are back in business.
2 of 8 front ‘lines’ ready for final artistic tweaking 🙂
