I needed to bend some unistrut for an awning project and my first attempt resulter in a lumpy piece of scrap. This prompted me to make this rolling machine. It worked like a charm. I turned a special profile roller last week and put a curve in an anodised 3/4 x 3/4 aluminun "U" channel for trim on a reception desk, 53" radius. Saved myself about $600.00 by doing it myself. Ano finish flashed slightly but I was able to apply the pieces so as to minimise what you could see. I had this giant 8" wide Kurt milling machine vise kicking around that I used for the pressure part.
8 foot long pieces laying on the floor.
A few pics of some aluminum ramps I built last year for my trailer. Race season starts soon and I need to build tire racks and a new winch mount for the front. Car has to be winched in because there is not enough room to open the door to get out.
I have some fairly big Mazak CNC mills. The longest bar was just about 60" and the machining for all of the holes and end profiles took less than 2 min. 1.5" holes were corkscrew milled with a .75 2 flute carbide endmill. Bar is 6061, 1x2.5. RPM was close to 10,000 and was flooded with 13 gal min coolant. Still, some chips flew out of the top of the enclosure. What you cannot see is that the square cross tubes were pocketed into the runners to locate them before welding. I heated the diamond plate as hot as I could before welding to put it under tension when it cooled. Most ramps telegraph their cross supports (dish panning) shortly after being put into use, but not these.
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