Hi guys,
I needed to make 8 brackets to attach the mudguards to the trailer for the sawmill I'm building. My first thought was to mill up nice curvy brackets from HDPE similar to the way truck mudguards are attached to their cantilevered tubular supports, but then I thought of bending saddle brackets up from 25 x 3mm flat steel. After consulting some guys at work, it seemed that a simple press tool for the hydraulic press would work to form the brackets. I made up a very basic tool from mild steel rod turned to the inside diameter of the clamps and some blocks of 25x25 bright mild steel welded to a steel base.

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The tool is made dead square, and to the final shape I wanted. ie. with no allowance for spring back. There was some spring back after forming, but a quick squeeze in the vice fixed that. The items came out of the tool after pressing with no jamming. Forming all 8 brackets plus a few spares took less than 10 minutes.

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I marked and cut them to length and drilled the holes after forming. Then de-greased them thoroughly and put them in the zinc plating bath. The picture below is before plating, to show how they fit on the trailer.

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Here they are zinc plated with a blue passivate finish.

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This was a fun project, and the brackets will do the job well. The cantilevered tubes are 1 inch ID gal water pipe, pushed into sockets welded to the trailer frame so that I can remove the mudguards when using the mill. It's turned out to be a neat and simple way of attaching the mudguards.

Graham.
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