Great idea!

A lot of folks doing hand-laying say that if you can get only one tool to help out, the rail bender is it.  I really like your idea of making one inexpensively!

Most Excellent!

Thanks for sharing.

Any chance of getting this into an MRH issue?  This is the sort of idea or tip that needs to be available later and including it in MRH would be one way to 'archive' it.

Options

Fast Tracks

Home made option, This one is good

Brought to you from You Tube

Options?

look at the end of your arms, there's 10 rail benders down there waiting to be used :> ) ......DaveB

One Problem

With the 10 rail benders. They are not consistent and have a habit of putting kinks in the rail. Been there and done that.

I like the second option in Art's post. Much cheaper.

Here's one I made.

Code 55 rail bent to a 12" radius.

Of course it helps to have a Bridgeport in the basement.

Bernd

Very Nice

Steve you are to be commended on posting this. I like it when somebody can use their grey matter to produce a tool from something else to help with there modeling. If we were handing out stars I'd give you a gold one. Since we don't have gold stars, 5 thumbs up will have to do.

Bernd

How budget?

Dear MRHers,

Sorry, the lads over on Gn15.info have had you covered for years...

http://gn15.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=347 

Admitedly, it's erring on the side of "cheap" as played-off against "feature laden", but at the price, 
one can afford to "build" most any radii one may need on-the-spot as-needs-require...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Sharing Ideas

I am glad to pass along my ideas on bending rail.  I have learned a lot from other peoples Blogs on a variety of railroad topics. It is my turn to help someone else.

Steve

Prize winner

Now that one wins the prize for not cheap, but as thrifty, as my wife would say.

Bernd

but will they bend atlas

very nice ,but will Atlas c83 flex hold a radii using a bender ?        I ask cause I have made some curved turnouts and used the rail out of atlas 24"r c83 sectional curve tracks as I couldn't figure out how to get the flex to hold a radii,  the rail in sectional is stamped to radii   JW

"I couldn't figure out how to get the flex to hold a radii"

You need some ties glued to the roadbed, then spike or solder the rail to the ties to hold the radius. Real rail is flexible too, I've seen long rail trains go around tehachapi loop and they bend just fine. The only place on a layout that needs pre curved rail would be very sharp curves like trolley tracks and maybe sharp industrial spurs, normal radius  curves work just fine with un-bent rail. In fact getting rails straight is harder than getting rails curved :> ) .DaveB

I must not have been clear

  when speaking of getting flex to hold a radii I MEANT ,using rail or rail scraps from atlas flex track to build turnouts and such where a pre bent rail is needed ?    or maybe when building turnouts ex. fast-tracks, I MISUNDERSTOOD (very possible) in thinking the rail needed prebending ?  JW

rail bender

was at Harbor Freight yesterday and saw an equivalent Jaxa wrench for $3.99, if anyone want to make this  

the rail needed prebending ?

Not unless one is using very large or stiff  rail and very tight curves. Rail is quite flexible and can be soldered just fine unbent. Even prototype rail can be  bent using hand power. The key is glue down the ties then draw a line where the  rail needs to go and then let the rail fair it's self around the curve. If you pre-bend the rails you still have to adjust them to the lines as they are soldered so it's basically a waste of time since they bend so easily in place.......DaveB 

budget rail bender

I used the jaxa wrench but made mine a little different.

I used a drill bit to bevel the four screws that hold the wrench together so i could replace the screws with flat head screws. I then removed the three bushings and cut them down to fit directly in the bearings and tapped the bushings for screws that hold the bearings in the bushings. This eliminates the spacer for the rail as the bottom of the rail just slides on the wrench.

Works great and cheap.

great stuff

I'm really impressed with the ingenuity here. What I like is how things from various different domains are put together to make a nice tool. Watch tools, roller blades and aircraft bolts!

FWIW I like this better than the wood tool because making the wood bender requires a router - which I don't have.

I'm never as impressed by people who show me how to make a $70 tool using their $500 tool as I am with solutions like this that use less complicated tools to make more complicated ones.

Picture?

Could you post a photo?

budget rail bender

I am not real good with these photos so here goes. First I beveled the screw holes on the Harbor Freight wrench to accept flathead screws

Then I chucked the bushing in my drill press and cut down the width with a file. Go slow the finished part should fit in the bearings well. The cut is the silver part in the picture and there is a shoulder on the bushing so you don't go too deep.

Then I tapped the bushing. I used a 10-20 Tap which seemed to work well. This is not a common size screw so I ordered a few on ebay for a few bucks. I used 10-20 X 3/4 screws 

The completed bender reassembled. The thumbwheel between the top two bearings does not interfere. Thanks for looking, I built this quite some time ago so I might of had better pictures but if there are any questions hit me back on the thread.     MARK