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Old 11-24-2012, 07:14 PM
Kerry Pinkerton's Avatar
Kerry Pinkerton Kerry Pinkerton is offline
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Default Curved "U" channel. How?

I recently bought an antique motor home (77 GMC) and have been spending most my time working on the interior.

The previous owner installed skinny mini blinds and made these really horrid wooden frames to keep the mini blinds close to the body. Problem is that the body is curved and the wood frames, in addition to being tacky, are straight.

So I made a set of blind retainers out of some aluminum angle I bent up. This is one HALF of the side.

R 010.jpg

you can see the curve. Because I don't know another way, I just made a mirror image (one shrunk one stretched, and tacked welded them together.

R 011.jpg

It's going to be covered with upholstery so the welds won't show.

R 012.jpg

This shot shows the bow in the side of the coach as well as how the mini blinds will fit in the opening of the "U".

However, I have 6 more windows to do and would prefer to just bend up a "U" channel and find a way to bend it. Obviously one side has to shrink and the other stretch. If I had beak dies for the Eckold I could do it but I don't

I was wondering if I might be able to do something with the Pullmax. Make a male/female U shape and bend it to the side by brute force as I feed it through.

Has anyone done anything like this before? I'm open to suggestions.
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Old 11-24-2012, 07:47 PM
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Kerry, I have done it in the bead roller using the stackable dies on thinner channel for the grill bars in stainless. I would think you could do it in the pullmax with the right dies. Getting the exact curve would be the hardest part.

What is the length of the legs and back of the channel. I assume you are using 3003 H 14 .063.
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Old 11-24-2012, 08:10 PM
Desoto Desoto is offline
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Hi Kerry,
If this job landed in my lap I would knock up a form block with MDF and piece of flat steel as a clamp. Of course there is a bit of tooling time but they all come out identical.
Cheers,
Ash.
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Old 11-24-2012, 08:11 PM
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Default making a curved channel

Kerry
If you lay out a blank that is wide enough for all three legs & the length that you need, use your sweeps to match up to the curved wall. Then make the long sides of your blank to match the sweep.

also use the sweep to mark the bend lines.
Use the tipping wheel to bend up to 45*
Or use pullmax if you have dies to crease the metal
clamp the backbone to a table & finish to 90* with a slapper.


Steve
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Old 11-24-2012, 08:30 PM
fordguyfordman fordguyfordman is offline
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Kerry,
I form parts like that a fair amount of the time at work. We use a rolling machine similar in style to a ring roller. The dies are stackable depending on the width of the part. I can get a few pics of it if it will help you.

Tom H
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Old 11-24-2012, 08:44 PM
route56wingnut route56wingnut is offline
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008_8_1.JPG

009_9_1.JPG

010_10_1.JPGI guess now is as good of time as any to make that ewheel anvil we were going to make .
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Old 11-24-2012, 09:01 PM
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I had to bend aluminum U channel to make the windshield frame for my project car and it had to curve in both directions. I was using 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/8" wall channel since I needed a 1/2" inside measurement for the rubber U channel that holds the glass. I cut long strips of 1/4" hardboard 5/8" wide and pushed 2 of them into the channed to keep it from collapsing. I have a ring roller I made and it put flat wheels in it to make the part. Gradual rollong in both directions gave me the curvature I needed in both directions in about an hour. Prying the spacers out was a little difficult but it left me with a groove that was just slightly under 1/2".

Windshield 034.jpg

Windshield 035.jpg

Windshield 037.jpg

Ring Roller 009.jpg
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Old 11-24-2012, 09:17 PM
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Jim that worked out really nice. I like that big effin wheel.
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Old 11-25-2012, 12:11 AM
metalman sweden metalman sweden is offline
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Kerry, I guess your wasy is the fastest for just a few of them..othervice take a look in Cass book about the porsche trims, bend a solid sqarebar of the right size to the radi you want and then wheel the package in your wheel, the alu will shape pretty easy...

Take care and have fun!
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Old 11-25-2012, 10:22 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gerry miller View Post
Jim that worked out really nice. I like that big effin wheel.
That was the first project with the ring roller. I had to turn it with a crescent wrench
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