January 20, 20215 yr Anyone done it? What did you use? FYI - I'm DIY'ing as much of the build as possible to minimize costs I will be needing 10's of L shaped pieces of rebar (all about 2m long) as part of the build. I figure there must be a straight forward method of making 90 degree bends and have come up with: 1. hydraulic benders (expensive bits of kit) 2. manual benders (two arms hinged together that you bolt to a large piece of wood) 3. As above but also calls itself a pipe bender (so I am a bit dubious) 4. A bar with 3 prongs at the end (a hickey bar I think its called) - vary in price from £30 upwards 5. One of these (this one up to 14mm rebar) for about £70-80 Then I saw this Youtube video (skip first 15s) - brilliant. Now searching for a "forged eybolt"
January 20, 20215 yr How about two scaffold tubes, one fixed to the floor/wall/bench, other slid over bar and “grunt”. I have used bits of my JCB before now to hold metal whilst I lean on it (8.8 tons ain’t going anywhere).
January 20, 20215 yr 4" Fence post laid flat with a 12mm hole through it and a 6ft length of scaff pole Put the bar through the hole to where you want the bend, one person stands on the post, other slides the scaff over and lifts it up Remove and repeat
January 20, 20215 yr Get a bending schedule drawn up and the rebar company will bend it for you. It is absolutely pennies to do, I had hundreds and hundreds or bends, it worked out at £1 per link for the steel and bending. Pits just not worth the agro. It will all come to site ready to tie together.
January 20, 20215 yr Buy them in bent, life is too short to be messing about trying to bend rebar. Edited January 20, 20215 yr by TonyT
January 20, 20215 yr Just now, TonyT said: Buy them in bent, lives too short to be messing about trying to bend rebar. Exactly, it’s nice people giving answers to a problem, but really the problem doesn’t exist. You will have a structural engineer you will need a bar bending schedule then you get a few quotes, pay for it and it turns up on a truck. Its that simple, there is no money to be saved bending it yourself, not unless you already have the re bar or you just need one or two bits.
January 20, 20215 yr No problem to bend a 90 degrees on long bits of rebar we just used two poles as sleeves. If doing anything more complex or big quantity just get the supplier to bend.
January 20, 20215 yr Whoever is certifying the build will not be impressed if they think you are doing DIY bending.
January 20, 20215 yr 21 minutes ago, Timedout said: Whoever is certifying the build will not be impressed if they think you are doing DIY bending. Why?
January 20, 20215 yr As above get a few quotes in. My prices were purely on weight of steel. When you have a couple of quotes, currently 570/t was 525 6 months back, you'll be in a good spot to call another co and just see what their/t cost is. Bending is free pretty much. I think big firms like High Ten have a lot of automation
January 21, 20215 yr Why? .... My understanding is that bending rebar should be done in a controlled way by a suitably equipped and qualified contractor following the BSI standards and codes. Perhaps discuss it with the designer of the reinforced structure. If the designer is happy, then just fine.
January 21, 20215 yr Bending rebar (manually) is mind numbing, heavy tiring labour. Have it ready done where you can. there will always be some site bending to do. Yes there are schedules and codes for bends but for the odd few you need to do on site its very easy with two tubes (usually Scaff tubes). The danger is bending too tight a radius but that wont happen doing it cold as the bar will naturally take a larger radius than machine bending.
January 21, 20215 yr 13 hours ago, Adam2 said: As above get a few quotes in. My prices were purely on weight of steel. When you have a couple of quotes, currently 570/t was 525 6 months back, you'll be in a good spot to call another co and just see what their/t cost is. Bending is free pretty much. I think big firms like High Ten have a lot of automation Ditto, mine were done by weight too, no charges for the bending
January 21, 20215 yr Disagree with the need to bend rebar to a BSI standard/code. Again as stated above lot easier to get the supplier to do it!
January 21, 20215 yr Although I have made the odd very small rebar cage, bent bars myself on site there are quite a lot of odds and sods to take account of. There is plenty info on the net and you should if in any doubt check with say your SE. You can find what is called the minimum bend radius and rebar suppliers web pages... BS8666 Shape Codes etc. Rebar is elastic up to a point. Over stretch it (make the bend too tight say) and this is compromised. If you take a paper clip and bend it a few times you can soon see what may happen to your bar. Also, if you bend the bar more than once (get it wrong) this reduces the ductility which is very important. It's not a good idea to use a bit of tube to bend the bar as this can notch the bar and / or introduce really high zones of stress in the bar. You can get a hand held bender for not too much (second hand also) that will do for small diameter bars. Sometimes say in renovation when time is short and you don't know the actual sizes until say you open something up then this can avoid a delay.. but make sure that say the SE is happy with this approach.
February 21, 20215 yr I got one of those: Done around 300 u shapes with it. Back breaking hard work. Wouldn't do it again. PM me if you want the tool .
February 23, 20215 yr Too busy . Swimming in work . Just started on the old site again and will update blog in the next months... but you know how it is with blogs ...? . did not forget about my old love buildhub .
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