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I need to make a plate to hold twin towbar electrics. I'm happy enough cutting the metal but there will be a couple of bends in there as well. I was going to score the metal along the fold lines with a grinder and then heat it up to aid with the bending. Will this be ok just left as is and then primed/sprayed or would it need some kind of strengthening along the crease? If so would normal solder used in a kind of brazing fashion do the trick?
Cheers in advance.
For tow bar electrics, thin metal, big vice and big hammer surely?
How thick is the metal and how sharp does the bend need to be?
Is it mild steel (and if you're not sure, where did you get it from)
It's mild steel, 1.2mm thick.
I have a big hammer but only a small vice. Couple of 90° bends should do the trick, I've not fully thought it out yet. I'm at work and can't quite remember what the towbar is like. It's a pickup with full width bar and integrated tow ball plus some weird eyelet loop thing, so it's not going to be just an L-profile plate.
I would not score 1.2mm steel to bend it, I would just bend it to shape.
Nope, don't score. Not even a real need to heat for 1.2mm.
Ah right. Ok, cheers.
I would try sticking the sheet of steel in the vice with a pipe or bit of M10 threaded rod behind it & using a hammer to slowly bend it around the pipe/threaded rod.
I wouldn't score it.
Depending how complicated it is, could you get the basic net form cut out (drill/hacksaw) and then take it to a sheet metal place and ask them to form the bends? It wouldn't take them very long & they probably wouldn't charge much.
Have a look at the Colin Furze workshop tour - some neat tricks for bending sheet/strip.
As above, I wouldn’t score or heat.
Even a small vice should be fine for 1.2mm. Do think carefully about whether to bend first and cut afterwards, or vice versa. If you cut a bit out and then try to push on the remainder to bend it, it's likely to bend at the narrow point, not where the vice is. Also which order to do the bends in, otherwise you do the first bend and then find out it's in the way of getting the thing in the vice so that the bend line is where the vice jaws are.
If the vice is too small for your workpiece to be bent.
Clamp the workpiece between 2 bits of wood the right size.
If you have some 1" angle use 2 pieces. Better than wood.
Not too sure what you mean by soldering in a brazing fashion.
Soldering is not a structural joint,and uses a relatively soft alloy.
Brazing is more structural and uses brass or bronze alloys and the whole area to be joined must be fluxed and heated up.
For a plate to hold electrics on a tow bar just use steel and bend it.
Why has it got to have a bend in it? Are you over thinking this?
Just go to the local motor shop or even Halfords and buy a ready made flat plate.
Cheap as chips. Don't waste time making one.
I learnt this lesson with the last tow bar I fitted.
Have you thought about how you are going to attach the plate to the towbar?
If it involves using the towbar bolts (assuming that its a bolt on towbar and not a swan-neck) you could be in for some fun.
Just had to fit a new longer bolt-on towball as my old one was too short for the new caravan hitch.
I had a 5ft long breaker bar on those bolts and was swinging like a gibbon and ONLY JUST managed to crack them off after lots of swearing, use of a heat-gun and lots of Plus-Gas.
Turns out the torque setting for towbar bolts is usually about 240Nm which is truck-loads! (and wayyyy above what my puny 1/2" torque wrench can muster.
Fitters at places like Western Towing or Witter usually use gert big long 3/4" torque wrenches with multipliers and all sorts of weird things to fit towballs.
Message is don't assume you can use the bolts as a mounting point. You may not get the buggers off without a trip to Asgard and a big clout from Thor's hammer.
ohhh..... and "weird eyelet thing..." Is that an attachment point for a Breakaway Cable?
The weird eyelet thing could well be for a breakaway cable. That's what I use it for, but it's rather large. It's also in the way of me just using a simple off-the-shelf mounting plate which is why I think I need to make one. Bends are needed to get around the eyelet. I was going to attach the plate using a couple of U-bolts, there's a vertical cylinder about 2" diameter x 5" long that the eyelet is part of. Hard to describe without pictures, but I can't find any online similar to the towbar I've got.
Never mind, I've just found an old photo of the truck. There's a bit of the towball mount I can bolt the plate onto. Problem solved.