20 ton pancake ram

[Frank S]

Frank,
Once you've put the jack bolts in place, I'm assuming this formed part will be welded into something that will keep the flange at it's correct 90 degree bend?
Or did you over-bend it back so when the jack bolts are released that it springs to a perfect 90?
Nice work on the pancake jacks!

The part was bent too far when I picked them up I has specifically specified that I required a true 90° bend on all bends but when was the last time any forming shop ever done anything to specs in this country? At first they tried to tell me they could not achieve a full 90 in as tight of a shape as I needed with the grade and thickness of the steel requested. I was prepared to have to deal with a less than 90 bend, by clamping and heating until I had a true 90, then when I saw it was bent more than 90 I thought well this will be easier to correct than not being bent enough.
using the porter power and the ram to spread it out to between 80 and 85° the jack bolts held it in place while a gently warmed the bend to about 350 to 400° to relieve some of the stress after removing the bolts I had a very near true 90.
The thing that aggravates me is when I had a press break if I asked my people to form something formed to any degree be it 1° or 125° that was what they made first time every time any thickness up to 13MM by 3 meters long they knew exactly how much spring back there was going to be for which grade and thickness those young men spoiled me with the pride they took in their work