Baileigh Industrial RDB-500, Operator'S Manual, Page: 32 / 52

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BENDING SUGGESTIONS
Aluminum Bending
If bending aluminum, lubrication is very important, if the results are less than desirable with WD-
40 other lubricants can be used such as:

Johnson Paste Wax (seems to work the best)

High Pressure grease

Highly rich dish soap

The bronze counter die must be polished and have no aluminum deposits or it will continue
to pick up metal.

If using BAILEIGH INDUSTRIAL
’s standard counterdie is not producing desired results, roller
counter dies are also available.

BAILEIGH INDUSTRIAL has both steel rollers as well as plastic rollers. Plastic rollers are
used primarily for polished aluminum. Steel rollers would be used for non-polished materials.

Some aluminum will crack as it is being bent, 6061-T6 is very hard and may need to be
annealed or ordered in the “T-0” condition. Aluminum will age harden so if possible try to get
freshly run material.
Heavy Wall DOM tubing
If heavy wall materials are bent to a tight radius, they can tend to slip in the hook arm causing a
poor bend result, below are some suggestions

Use a vise clamp on the outside of the hook arm to “lock” the material in place.

Use a piece of two sided coarse emery cloth in between the hook arm and the material, this
works very well.

In only this application, high pressure grease applied to the DIE GROOVE also helps.

BAILEIGH INDUSTRIAL can make special clamps to hold material in place.