Bending Plate

Here is an idea for the “mother of all bending jigs”. See Fig. 2. I bought this plate at the Mason Dixon Steam Show’s flea market (Carrol County Farm Museum, Westminster, MD) for $10. Recently one of the participants in the FORGEMAGIC bulletin board on the INTERNET mentioned having run a cross a similar type plate out of 1” thick steel, 30” by 24” and the tapped holes were 1/2”.

My plate is 10” by 10” and ¾” thick. The matrix of holes is 9 by 9 and 1” on center. Each hole is taped 3/8”/16/NC. I have a 4” long piece of 1” square that I can bolt to the bottom of the plate so that I can hold it in the vise. I can also bolt a hardy stem into the bottom so that I can use it on top of the anvil. I have also found this jig to be very useful under the fly press.

I have found this handy when having to make complicated bends. You can see in the photograph, that I have made a number of different fixtures and stops that can be bolted to the plate. This would be really tedious to make yourself (drilling and then tapping 81 holes) but if you happen to run across one of these plates, it is worth grabbing.

• "Mother of all" bending jigs.:
  

-- AlbinDrzewianowski - 25 Jan 2008