Homemade rail bender

[BigTracks]

Does anyone remember what issue contained the article about building a railbender?

[Rene Schweitzer]

There were two: June 2002 (probably the one you're thinking of) August 1986

[BigTracks]

Thanks Rene for the quick response.  Will look up this afternoon

Thanks

[SNOWSHOE]

It was the June 2002 I just got that one for that article.  It beats spending 100-200$ on a railbender. 

[vsmith]

June 02, its easy to make too.

[grandpopswalt]

Normal 0

Vic,

 

How is the rail fed through the bender? Is it pushed or pulled or a combination? And is there any deviation from the desired radius at the very ends?

 

Thanks,

 

Walt

 

 

[vsmith]

grandpopswalt

Normal 0

Vic,

How is the rail fed through the bender? Is it pushed or pulled or a combination? And is there any deviation from the desired radius at the very ends?

Thanks,

Walt

Its hard to explain, you place the bender over the rail and apply some pressure, and pull the rail back and forth through the bender while appliying some pressure, not too much or you will taco the rail. But slowely adding pressure causes the rail to curve and yes the ends do tend to remain straight as the can only go so far throught the bender before the pass the rollers.

On mine I placed the rollers too far apart, each of the outside rollers should be one mounting hole closer, that would help with the end radius issue. I dont know if that would make the roll thru issue easier or harder to get a consistant curvature. The plans were not very clear on how far apart they should have been, but using this I did successfully bend rail down to 32" diameter.

[Rene Schweitzer]

Just an update to this post. Since I've had several requests about these articles, I'm going to make them available (on their own) as a PDF. When they are in the catalog (a few weeks), I will post a link. 

[Jim in MO]

are the plans for the rail bender available anywhere at this point?

[Rene Schweitzer]

 Yes! The two articles about building a rail bender are now available in our catalog: http://kalmbachcatalog.stores.yahoo.net/grpdf047.html

[Marty Cozad]

the artical I remember was washers placed on a block of wood with screws. that was way back before Rene was born. I used it for years till I tried a double rail bender and woow, its worth every dime.

[HW Small]

Picking this thread up a few years later... I found this thread and went to purchase the article last week.  While it appears in my account I get an error when I try to download it.  I have emailed your support (received an automatic ack) but now a few days later, no response from any human and the file is still not downloadable (grpdf047.pdf).  Any thoughts how I should proceed?  Thank you.