Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Jim,

Also, if you hit the trim too hard you will stretch it out and go the wrong way. That is one of the learning curves for the guys here. They beat their brains out bending a piece of trim on a buck and don't get anywhere. Then I walk over put a little pressure on with my left hand while gently wacking it with the plastic hammer and it goes right around the form. They always get mad at me, hmm. The whole problem is hitting it hard enough to squish it and that makes it go the other way.

Doing a 3/4" leg without a shrinker is pretty darn tricky. Most aircraft guys will either shrink it or use fluter which puts a corrugation into it. Shrinkers have come down ALOT in price in the last year or two I have noticed. Less than $200 I think now.

Jack,

By the way our door frame pieces are 10' 6". Wow if you did those door frames for under $30 that is way cool!

Cary

Cary, I really appreciate the information. Things went a lot smoother today and I am pleased with the results. There was one small ripple in the whole bend but it will be easily fixed. The jig we built made it very easy to bend and no ripples. Here are a couple pictures of the jig we made for the 3/4 X 3/4 X 5 foot piece.

This is with the angle in the jig after it was bent.





These two pictures are of the trim after being bent.





Jack, thanks to your help the annealing went soooo easy today and it bent like butter. Thanks my friend.[/img]

Jim, good t hear it went better today...and as Cary said, this is one of those things with a decent learnig curve to it...to that note I had bought a couple of pieces of 3/4 cahnnel and a few months ago and basically destroyed, as I tried different annealing/bending techniques...it paid off in the end

Cary. it was closer to 40 bucks which incldes the 2 frames to make up the jamb and the piece to wrap the door...SS hinge excluded...we are right at 10'6" also...we used 8 ft pieces to go hinge to hinge and a 30(?)" hinge with a cut down piece behind it...oh yeah, that tap and pull technique is what I was trying to descibe to Jim...works so well
madjack

Jim,

Heh, that is one fine piece of bending. That is one of the harder bends to make with that long a leg.

Cary

Thank you Cary, I appreciate that my friend.

Well -

Took all this great knowledge and tried my hand at annealing. Had a 8 foot section of 3/4 x 3/4 U channel (will be using this to cover the 3/4ply in the galley. Lightly sooted up the piece - and after a little experimentation - I completed the job in about 30 minutes. A couple of passes with the torch. After it cooled down - who ever said - it bent like butter - real nice.

Thanks for all the info.

BILL

I have another question about annealing. I bought some U channel 1 inch wide with 1/2 inch legs and 1/8 inch thick. I want to use this for a rain gutter over our doors and for a wind shield infront of our doors, to keep the wind and rain from blowing on the door seals, while driving. My question is, do I anneal this thick aluminum the same way as the thinner trim? I want to make a very tight radius for the top edge of our doors with the channel being bent backwards. Is this possible or should I just cut and miter the corner?

Jim, you would anneal the same way and you will find that bending backwards will work even better since you are streching the leg instad of compressing it...in our build we have some 3/4 x 5/16 angle that is bent over backwards to fit a 2" radius...
madjack

Jack, I really do appreciate you my friend, that is really encouraging. Bending 5/16 inch aluminum is very impressive. That is one great job you did on that tight bend. Thanks so much!

Whoa Jim...the thickness of the material was only 1/16...the 5/16 is the size of the leg...3/4x5/16 LEGS on 1/16th material...it is still an impressive bend that shows what can be done...
madjack

I agree Jack, that is still impressive to get that tight a bend.