Great Video! I had a thought! since the diameter of the 180 degree bend is the same for both molds, you can use the first U shaped mold to make 2 wireforms, then put the second thru your key-shaped mold to bend edges to fit the keyhole, might be easier bending than trying to bend a straight rod using the keyhole mold.
What if you mounted the press flat to a plywood or MDF “table”? That is how the cookie cutter press was laid out. Then, after the wire is bent, you could place nails in the wood to allow for the shape to be held where you want it. From there, you could raise the wire form off the table up the nails and then heat anneal the wire so it passively holds its shape without (hopefully) burning the table. I would think passivity would ultimately prevent issues down the road. The metal would look awful from the heat but nothing a little powder coat wouldn’t fix. Awesome channel, BTW. Please keep making content!
Nice jigs. A couple tips: Try nylon filament which should be tougher. Also, bending metal rods to an accurate shape is always kinda tricky. Typically I over bend to compensate for the angle. So if you want a 45 degree bend then you over bend to say 65 or something there about. And heating up the rods in a oven (air fryer with an ‘bake’ setting; mini oven; or regular oven) helps the metal take on a more accurate shape when pressed into a forming jig. The caveat with heating is obviously you don’t want to melt the jig. If you build a plywood jig then you’d be okay. Otherwise, maybe protect the 3D print with aluminum foil, aluminum tape or copper tape. You’d have to experiment with how hot is hot enough but I’d guess red hot is ideal. Another factor is heating the rods may affect the finish but that can be fixed with polishing compound, wire bits on the Dremel and various grades of steel wool. You could also spray paint or airbrush the rods for some interesting variations on the traditional style/finish. 👍👍
I'd screw molds on wood to remove 1 axis from variables, use for those failed playfields ;) Planning my first, these videos been really useful, thank you! Adventure based in old home city, build from ground up. Cabinet from sawmill rough pine and arduino mega controlling. Been fun ride to plan, gonna be fun to build, and flustrating, lot of swearing with coding..
Glad it worked! Something that could help are some flats on the side of the mold to make it easier to tight. Also round entrance to it to simplify the first bend
great work with these dies, loved to see you succeed at the end. I think that heat is introduced you might be able to bend and maintain the tension there. maybe these dies can be CNC'd ? so then you can use a torch to heat up the die on the outside. I like the idea of keeping it simple like you did, but like you, I am always thinking of making one effort that is 100% repeatable. Good work!
Hey thanks, it was fun to try, worked better than expected too- it would be fun to try CNC’ing these out of aluminum or something yeah - one day maybe….
Good job! It's amazing how much we can do with 3D printing. Are the plastic part still good solution or did currently though about to brazing the wireforms?
I think you really only need the mold for the circular part, the edges you can/need to do by hand, because you need to overbend anyway. You might want to undersize the rounded bends a little to account for springiness.
On your horse shoe shaped block, one try making it with a small ball bearing at the entrance’s inside corner so when you slide in middle section in the rod rolls around that corner reducing drag on the 3d print, you might have to make it a bit thicker to provide extra strength but for when you slide the piece in it won’t be grabbing on that corner. Just a suggestion
If it was possible to heat up the metal so it was more malleable, I wonder if it would take form more easily. A blacksmith heats up metal then shapes the metal type thing...
Great Video! I had a thought! since the diameter of the 180 degree bend is the same for both molds, you can use the first U shaped mold to make 2 wireforms, then put the second thru your key-shaped mold to bend edges to fit the keyhole, might be easier bending than trying to bend a straight rod using the keyhole mold.
What if you mounted the press flat to a plywood or MDF “table”? That is how the cookie cutter press was laid out. Then, after the wire is bent, you could place nails in the wood to allow for the shape to be held where you want it. From there, you could raise the wire form off the table up the nails and then heat anneal the wire so it passively holds its shape without (hopefully) burning the table. I would think passivity would ultimately prevent issues down the road. The metal would look awful from the heat but nothing a little powder coat wouldn’t fix. Awesome channel, BTW. Please keep making content!
Impressive. I didn’t think the prints would be strong enough, but glad to see it worked. Nice.
Nice jigs. A couple tips: Try nylon filament which should be tougher. Also, bending metal rods to an accurate shape is always kinda tricky. Typically I over bend to compensate for the angle. So if you want a 45 degree bend then you over bend to say 65 or something there about. And heating up the rods in a oven (air fryer with an ‘bake’ setting; mini oven; or regular oven) helps the metal take on a more accurate shape when pressed into a forming jig. The caveat with heating is obviously you don’t want to melt the jig. If you build a plywood jig then you’d be okay. Otherwise, maybe protect the 3D print with aluminum foil, aluminum tape or copper tape. You’d have to experiment with how hot is hot enough but I’d guess red hot is ideal. Another factor is heating the rods may affect the finish but that can be fixed with polishing compound, wire bits on the Dremel and various grades of steel wool. You could also spray paint or airbrush the rods for some interesting variations on the traditional style/finish. 👍👍
I'd screw molds on wood to remove 1 axis from variables, use for those failed playfields ;) Planning my first, these videos been really useful, thank you! Adventure based in old home city, build from ground up. Cabinet from sawmill rough pine and arduino mega controlling. Been fun ride to plan, gonna be fun to build, and flustrating, lot of swearing with coding..
Wow!
you did really well with this problem
congratulations
Laurent
Glad it worked! Something that could help are some flats on the side of the mold to make it easier to tight. Also round entrance to it to simplify the first bend
I wonder if heat could memorise the shape too
great work with these dies, loved to see you succeed at the end. I think that heat is introduced you might be able to bend and maintain the tension there. maybe these dies can be CNC'd ? so then you can use a torch to heat up the die on the outside. I like the idea of keeping it simple like you did, but like you, I am always thinking of making one effort that is 100% repeatable. Good work!
Hey thanks, it was fun to try, worked better than expected too- it would be fun to try CNC’ing these out of aluminum or something yeah - one day maybe….
Great ideas! Good work.
Keep up the good work 👍
Good job! It's amazing how much we can do with 3D printing. Are the plastic part still good solution or did currently though about to brazing the wireforms?
The plastic molds have been working great, I ended up 3d printing a pipe bender to help bend wireforms too 😃
Nice idea to bend does wire. Do you not mine to share the Fusion 360 file of the clamps? Thank you for recording your experience!
Yes, of course!! I'll put the files up in my "!Public Files/3d printing" folder on Google drive - link is in the description
@@thepinballroom Thank you for the fast replay and the files!
Have you looked into the cnc wire bending machines lots of videos on youtube
No I haven’t seen those yet, I’ll have to look it up, thanks!
I think you really only need the mold for the circular part, the edges you can/need to do by hand, because you need to overbend anyway. You might want to undersize the rounded bends a little to account for springiness.
Yes, but I want to figure out a way to get more consistent bends, doing it by hand (for me at least) it never turns out quite the same 😕
On your horse shoe shaped block, one try making it with a small ball bearing at the entrance’s inside corner so when you slide in middle section in the rod rolls around that corner reducing drag on the 3d print, you might have to make it a bit thicker to provide extra strength but for when you slide the piece in it won’t be grabbing on that corner.
Just a suggestion
Interesting idea, I wouldn’t have thought of that. But yeah that could reduce the friction right? Thanks for the suggestion!
@@thepinballroom or use something similar to a handheld copper pipe bender, they have a maximum bend radius of about 180°
@@brad855 ooooh! That’s a great idea! I’ll have to check those out- can’t believe I didn’t think of trying that!
@@thepinballroom maybe try 3d print one for the rod you have, might have a hard time finding one to suit the diameter you are using
@@brad855 that actually sounds fun, I’ve never modeled a tool like that 🧐
Wooho!
If it was possible to heat up the metal so it was more malleable, I wonder if it would take form more easily. A blacksmith heats up metal then shapes the metal type thing...
Yeah, good point, but not sure how that would work with the plastic tho. 😕
I would just make another one just tighter close. Same exact form, just the second one is .25" smaller. Or something like that
Yeah I think you may be right. I’ll continue to experiment as I have time 👍