[TowerTalk] How is the best way to bend rebar

[ersmar at comcast.net]

Scotty:

     Five years ago (at a much younger age!) I bent about 20 #6 (3/4 inch) rebars for my tower project in less than a couple of hours.  You'll have to make a trip to the local Home Despot or Lowe's for the tools.  

     I bought one six foot long piece of iron water pipe about 1 inch or so inches in (inner) diameter, and another piece about three feet long.  In my case I wedged the longer piece between the outrigger legs of the backhoe that was digging my tower foundation, but you can simply (?) drive your rear wheels of a car/truck over it to keep it in place.  Then insert the rebar into the pipe up to the point you want to bend.  Next, slide the shorter pipe over this end and leave about an inch of space on either side of the bend spot.  I marked the bends on the rebar with yellow tape.

     All you have to do (he said blithely) is lift up on the end of the shorter iron pipe and the rebar should bend quite readily to whatever angle you choose.  As I said I bent about twenty bars pretty quickly this way, although I was a bit sore.  

     All these instructions assume you are going to put only one bend of at most 90 degrees into each rebar piece.  If you need to make compound bends or multiple bends, I believe this technique is a bit too simplistic.  And don't forget to remove the tape before you pour concrete.

73 de
Gene Smar  AD3F


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Scotty Rathjen" <scotty at ashiko.com>
> Hi Gang,
> Just finished making one rebar cage and have more to do.  Bending  # 4 (half
> inch diameter) rebar is not so easy.  Can I use a torch to heat up the rebar
> so that I can easily bend it or does this cause a problem to the rebar
> strength or make it too brittle?
> Thanks for any and all help.
> 73 de W7SW Scotty  W7SWatARRLdotNET
> 
> 
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