Thread: Best way to bend steel Mesh

Hi Bob,
Not really answering your question here.
I think I'd just cut the shelf in half and join it back together with little pieces of pipe. That way you can fold it at work. Have you folded mesh before? it can leave little dings in the blades if you arent careful.
I assume its gal mesh? If not I think I'd weld some 25x3 flat black to it to make the "fold", that way you would have a wire along the front edge and not 25mm back from it.

Stuart (rambling because I cant think of an answer)

Bob, what you have suggested is probably a good way to go. As Stuart says, it will wreck a good bender so most commercial places with benders will not touch the stuff. Usually the wire is hard drawn too, just to add extra difficulty.

Michael

Bob, I bend this stuff almost every day as part of my business. (I make cat enclosures)
I've made up my own bender which took a fair bit of head scratching and is still not 100%.

The stuff I use is 1.2mtr x 2 mtr with 50x50 opening and 4mm wire.

When I was first developing the concept I approached a couple of people here about bending it. None were interested as it would apparantly bugger their benders, so I'd really not suggest you use the one at work.

You're on the right track with the angle and mash hammer. I did several in that manner at the start, but you'll need something much heavier than the angle you're thinking of unless you can clamp it in the middle. To give you an idea, without going out to measure it, I'd say the angle I use in my bender would be 125x125x12 to 15mm. Weighs a ton.

If you have a surface with a edge and can clamp it down REAL good then you can use a combination of your weight and the mash hammer to work your way along the bend. Don't try to do it all at once. Take several passes with it.

One last thing, when positioning the sheet, make sure the wires you are bending wrap around the wires that run the length. If you try to bend the other way, the small "welds" at each junction break.

Hope this helps
Cheers
Jim

Thanks guys. The mesh is only 3 mm thick which should make it easier. The shelf will be used for storing 4 chainsaws and the mesh shelf will have a sheet metal drip tray underneath it to catch the endless drips of bar and chain oil that drip from these things.

I should easily be able to clamp the angle in the middle as I will only be bending 25 and 50 mm lips along the long edges.

How about something like this?

Looks good to me. But if you need to bend over 90 degrees like you want you will have to turn the top one around after you have it bent to 90 degrees.

I would use a piece of timber held on the wire and then hit that. If you have a piece 300-400mm long held at a slight angle, you can work your way along and while the first ones are only just starting to get bent, the last ones are fully bent over.

Dave

Thanks Dave.

Hi Bob,
Looks good to me, the only thing I might change is to use 25mm angle where the wires running along the shelf are. Something like this(of course the small piece maybe on the bench).

One you get close to 90 deg you can change it to something like this or just knock it the rest of the way by eye.

Stuart

For an alternate method of storing chain saws, take a look at pic5 in message #4 here: https://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/cha...visited-47976/

I drain the oil, and attach cutoff plastic bottles to catch the remaining oil. These are all electric chain saws, but the method could be useful for petrol-powered if the fuel tanks permit. PITA to also drain the fuel.

Cheers,
Joe

For a one off job, grab a bit of 25mm to 35mm RHS and cut a slot in so it'll fit over the wire and gradually bend each bit up working from one end to the other, two passes should do it.

Doesn't take long to do really, probably do it quicker than clamping bits to the mesh

Originally Posted by joe greiner

For an alternate method of storing chain saws, take a look at pic5 in message #4 here: https://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/cha...visited-47976/

I drain the oil, and attach cutoff plastic bottles to catch the remaining oil. These are all electric chain saws, but the method could be useful for petrol-powered if the fuel tanks permit. PITA to also drain the fuel.

Cheers,
Joe

I seriously considered hanging my chainsaws from the ceiling of my shed like meat carcasses but I don't want to drain the oil, mainly because I can never get all the oil out of them unless I wash the oil tank and lines out with petrol and let them dry out, so no matter what I do they drip and I need a drip tray under them.

Most of my saws and bars are slightly larger than yours so I would need a fairly hefty stand.
For example
111cc

120 cc

Sometimes I do leave the power heads in the Chain Saw Mill (CSM) and stand the CSM up like in the first picture but to save space I remove the remove the power heads from the CSM and store them on wooden shelves. I was placing flat plastic flower pot dishes under each saw to act as drip trays but these dishes do not hold a full oil tank if the saw decides to take an oil dump.

OK! you have the answer for the 3mm mesh ,but here's some ideas for the thicker stuff.

Below is a pic of a mesh bender by dawn that could be expanded in length and more fingers added..

The alternate cheap rrs way is to lay and a straight bar or angle along the bend line and half cut through with a thin a grinder blade.

Bend up to 90 degrees and tack at each bend.

Grahame

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Below is a pic of a mesh bender

No there isnt

Well it turned out to be very easy even though I had no angle the right length to do it all in one go (I had either 1 or 6 m lengths and I wasn't going to cut the 6m length for this). I used the 1 m length in a couple of passes as shown here.




50 mm wide lip, bent around the lengthwise wire no weld breaks.

On the 25 mm lip I got a bit greedy and broke 2 welds.


Here is a test run with 3 supports across the 1800 mm shelf length using my heaviest chainsaw.

It doesn't bend too much and might bend a little less when it is fixed to the angle bracket shelf supports.

I just realized my studs are 600 mm apart so I will use 4 angle brackets to support the shelf.

Thanks for all the help.

Looks like it turned out good Bob,
It might have been a bit stronger if you went with both bent at 50 instead of one 25 to add a little more support. That way it would have a wire top and bottom like the back.
Just a thought, would it be stronger if you turned it around so the longer bent leg was at the front.

Dave