One of the projects I’ve been hired to work on is an old rail passenger car, made around 1929. It was heated with steam pipes, which won’t be needed anymore. I removed them, and since scrap metal is so cheap right now, I was allowed to keep them.
The pipes were held in place by these steel brackets. I kept them because I don’t like how long it takes to drill holes in steel. These can easily be welded to other steel to make that piece have drilled holes.
I have a small book By Dave Gingery about working sheet metal on a budget. I need custom made sheet metal pieces for the Toyota Truck restoration, and other projects. In the book, he shows how to make a bench with a bender tool mounted on the edge. If used carefully, it does the same job (nice bends) as a brake. So I made a bender myself, but with much larger components. This one is about 7 feet long; uses an section of enormous angle iron, and a section of I-beam. I needed a way to pull the two pieces together; that’s what the brackets and bolts are for. The brackets needed to be bent at a 90 degree angle, so I heated them in the forge.
The brackets are screwed into a large wood beam, which sits inside the enormous angle iron. The way it works is that the two pieces of straight steel hold the sheet metal tightly; allowing you to bend it with a crisp corner. The next picture shows where the brackets are screwed to the wood. In the picture above, you can see the two lag screws. If you’re not familiar with them, they let you use mechanic’s wrenches to tighten a bolt into wood. In the second picture below, you can see my first test piece. It’s actually about 12 inches wide. I was pleased.
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