Best way to do this?

[ranchak]

I need to flatten the ends of some tubing, 11 ga. .049 wall thickness, either mild steel or 304 stainless. Would I be able to make a few dies from Acetal or steel and flatten the ends or is there a better way? I wanted to stay away from flattening in a vice or hammering.

[Geof]

Are you using a press?

You don't even need dies, just two pieces of hot rolled steel flat bar with rounded corners.

[ranchak]

Hi Jeff, I am going to use a 20 ton homemade bottle jack press. I don't quite follow what you mean by using two pieces of hot rolled steel flat bar with rounded corners? Do you mean rounded where they will form the transistion from the flat to the round part of the tube?

[Geof]

Yes.

If you are just doing a few pieces of tube you can just line things up by eye. If you are doing many you may find it convenient to make a simple 'die set' using two pieces of hot rolled with guide pins and springs to hold them apart while you insert the tube.


Bottle jack, hand operated? You are energetic.

For my home workshop I picked up a really good air-operated 20 ton press for less than $300 from a discount place called Princess Auto here in Canada. Now all I do is press the air valve.

[ranchak]

Geof, I have an air operated bottle jack that I will use, I'm too lazy for that manual stuff! I lucked out today, my customer revised their build and I don't have to flatten the tubes now.