# rail bender: what's important?



## Skeeterweazel (Feb 11, 2014)

Thinking of making my own bender. Wondering about the bearings that do the bending. Noticed the inside one has a lip. Assuming this is to keep the bender from coming off the rail? How important is that lip? Would it be good for all the bearings to have that lip? Maybe the 2 inner bearing working together keep the rails from popping out? Hmmmm.....










Planning to make my turns 5' radius. Would it be good to design bender to bend outside rail a little less and inside a little more than 5'? Or am i worrying too much?

Thx.

Marty


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

I can't speak to the efficacy of the "lip" on the roller, but--yes--its function is to go under the head of the rail and keep it in place. Whether or not a railbender without this lip would be less functional, I don't know.

In terms of wanting to bend the inside rail more than the outer one, it's not something that you need worry about. With a dual-rail railbender, the rails and ties work together to keep things in place.

Later,

K


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

I think that if you bend on the Rial head only you might twist the rials from uneven stress. I am not sure about that only guessing.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

John J said:


> I think that if you bend on the Rial head only you might twist the rials from uneven stress. I am not sure about that only guessing.


Marty,

When you make your own bender, you will no doubt get some twist in the rail and that is very difficult to overcome. You will be frustrated with the result. Buy a ready-made dual rail bender ( a GOOD one) and you will be very pleased with the result. Train-Li is probably the premier dual-rail bender, but worth every dollar. Remember, a rail bender is a tool you will use a lot when you are building your layout. The cost of a bender will pay for itself with years of trouble free results. You get what you pay for.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

That is a Train-Li bender if I am not mistaken. The lip looks like a good idea, but it also makes the unit somewhat dependent on rail head contour. I've used several brands, including this one, and I do not see that the lip is needed.

Here's a page on rail benders:
http://www.elmassian.com/trains/track-aamp-switches/flex-track-and-rail-benders


Greg


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## Skeeterweazel (Feb 11, 2014)

Dang Gary. Oh ye of little faith!

Thx Greg. I've seen your page. That's where i stole pic from.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Skeeterweazel said:


> Dang Gary. Oh ye of little faith!
> .


Hey you wanted an answer, you got one! You didn't like the message, so shoot the messenger. Many of your questions on this forum on other subjects, have been answered by others and you take it as an unwelcome response. I DID make my own bender as I'm a tool maker and machinist. I was NOT happy with the results (twisting of the rail again). I spent a lot of time designing this piece of crap and a bit of money I could have spent on other things. IF YOU don't want the answers and want to give smart ass remarks in return, don't ask them! Try it yourself. Good luck.


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## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

I have the rail bender in the pic above. I've never used the levels - so not important to me. The plastic strips can wear out over time so important to be able to replace them easily. The lip on the center roller helps me keep the rail in the bender - so i like it. Important to me to be able to bend the rails while the ties are still attached - and both rails at once. Markings on the center slider so I can try and reproduce the same bend on another piece of track. Sliders/rollers that can be swapped for use with both code 250/332 would be nice - if you have that need.

I wouldn't worry about the inside being slightly off of the outside rollers, just keep them 45mm apart. The only rollers that move are in the center. If you did worry about the inside vs. the outside I think it would depend on the curve, and the one I have doesn't change due to the curve being bent.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I made my own rail bender (Single rail, not dual or "track") and I made the rollers the mirror image of the rail profile to keep the rail square to the bend and reduce the chance of the rail taking a twist or wind (long i as in Wine). Bending the rail in a curve is hardest on the foot of the rail where it is thinnest perpendicular to the bend being made. By making the rollers mate with the rail profile the rail was held square to the bend and I got NO twisting at all.

I then made a huge compass fixture to hold a router to make parallel curved grooves in a wide board to hold the rails upside-down while I slipped the ties on from the ends of the rails. I made the grooves different diameters to account for the gauge.

My bender worked okay, but I was making all my curves exactly the same radius, so once set to the right bend, I ran all my rail (that was to be curved) through it.

I found that even though the inner and outer rail are of a different radius, I used just one setting on my bender (once I found the right setting!) and they easily fell into either of the grooves I made in the board; the difference in diameters being well within the springiness of the rail to bend, more or less, to fit.

So, I do think the ridge on the rollers in the picture are of value to hold the rail perpendicular to the bend... the ridge touches the vertical webbing and the flat of the roller is against the head... of course, bending both rails at the same time, with the ties holding the rail square, there would be less tendency to twist or wind anyway.

I did have to be sure that I "pushed" the rail through the bender and not "pulled" as that would exert a bending moment on the rail exiting my bender. This would be equivalent to "pushing" the dual bender on the rails and not "pulling" the track through the bender.


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## Skeeterweazel (Feb 11, 2014)

Dang Gary. I thought we were buddies. I didn’t think my remark was that smart-assed. It was meant rather tongue-in-cheek.
Look at your remark from my perspective: “When you make your own bender, you will no doubt get some twist in the rail and that is very difficult to overcome. “ That’s a pretty bold statement, not knowing me, or my capabilities. If you would have also mentioned that you had made your own and it didn’t work out I would have understood better, and acceptable your opinion no question. I’m not asking anyone to blow sunshine up my backside, but if you shoot down one of my ideas please tell me why. Like my 3% grade plan. Lots of naysayers. But no real explanations. Later I saw a comment, could have been in another thread, that steam oil makes track slippery. I never thought of that.
Ok? Are we good? Group hug everyone! 

Not sure what to use for sliders on bender. Need to find some plastic or something.

FYI: ordered my loco today. Big learning curve ahead.

Marty


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Delrin would make really nice sliders, back off a bit and you can use nylon, like most of them use.

Greg


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## Robby D (Oct 15, 2009)

If you use the rail bender enough you'll need to replace the sliders. also you need the lip on the rollers to keep the rail on the bender, otherwise it will slip off.


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## Robby D (Oct 15, 2009)

Here is the rail bender we sell. My father in law designed and makes them.


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## Skeeterweazel (Feb 11, 2014)

Thx guys.
I only need to bend roughly 62' of aluminum 332 track.
1) on a bender would wood or aluminum work for sliders? Maybe not "slidey" enough?
2) or should i just bend my "hand", around a barrel or something? 
Actually, only need 1/2 that amount to build my test loop. Wish it wasn't such a pain to get the ties off/on.

So to change gears, what alternatives are there to using a bender? Could one cut 2 arcs of thin plywood at a smaller radius than the desired final track radius, nail these to a sheet of plywood, flip track over so rails are against the arcs, and go for it? Would be some trial/error to get the arcs right.

As you can see, i'm not shy about trying to "mickey mouse" something to try and save $$$.

Thx.
Marty


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## Homo Habilis (Jul 29, 2011)

Marty:

I have Robby's bender and I like it a lot. It's difficult to believe that the Train-Li is significantly better for the price difference.

I have SVRR aluminum track that I bent with it. While aluminum is obviously soft, it was still difficult to get smooth curves and transitions by hand without it. Even using my ample gut to attempt the much discussed "belly-bend" technique did not yield the results that I was looking for. I did attempt to make some curved plywood templates but those too failed to satisfy my needs.

My railroad is indoors and sits about 40" off the floor with 160' of track so it was rather important to me to have the track look good. The RLD bender helped me achieve that goal; I cannot recommend it highly enough.

You might consider renting or borrowing one from a club near you. Perhaps someone here can make a suggestion for one near you.

Good luck with whatever method you choose.


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## Skeeterweazel (Feb 11, 2014)

I read someone's tip to clamp 2 sections of track together, then run through the bender. That way the ends get formed better.
Are these clamps as good as any to use to bend my alum 332 track?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ACCUCRAFT-A...082864?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item3f31e5cab0


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

When the slider wears out on the train-li bender, it can be removed and reversed or turned 180 degrees.
Thus this slider has 4 separate uses before needing replacement.
There are replacement sliders available from Train-Li-Usa.com


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Marty, 
The plastic strips are UHMW I believe. For example,

http://www.amazon.com/UHMW-Strip-48...KODM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1396697764&sr=8-2

You can get the rollers / bearings only from Train Li (though they call them "conversion kits"):

http://www.train-li-usa.com/store/rail-bender-c-54_36.html?osCsid=a531213d4399d715c95dee9694e0f74e

I use the Train Li bender, and it's been great. 

Good luck,
Cliff


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## Homo Habilis (Jul 29, 2011)

You might also, if you haven't already, Google "homemade rail bender" as there are images, descriptions and videos of various solutions. Maybe something will be of use if you build your own.


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## wigginsn (Jan 9, 2008)

Skeeterweazel said:


> Would it be good to design bender to bend outside rail a little less and inside a little more than 5'?
> 
> Marty


Hi Marty,

I used a TrainLi bender to create some custom curved turnouts, starting by bending 5' sections to the required curves. 

But when I removed the tie strips the rails were not bent to the exact same curve - in fact the outer rail was much tighter radius that the inner, exactly the opposite of what you'd expect.

So, not required in my experience. Don't worry about this detail - unless you want to of course..

Cheers
Neil


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

It's a good design to be able to flip the sliders over to get more use, but rotating them 180 degrees? That might be possible if the wear on one end of the slider was in a completely different place than the other end. My experience with the train-li unit (as well as others) is that when the slider becomes fairly worn, you replace or flip over.

Greg


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

Greg, the mounting holes are offset allowing for 4 yes 4 times use of the sliders in different positions.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I understand the holes are offset Dan.

But, in my experience, and I HAVE used this one (and virtually every one on the market), the wear on the "spacers" varies over a lot of the spacer, thus not always allowing swapping the spacers end for end to use an "unworn" area.

I've heard this before, and used the Train-Li one very early in it's "history"... maybe even before your affiliation with them. I do not see this as always possible nor a clear advantage over the others.

Again, just my opinion, and I might state that I do not derive any of my income from a specific manufacturer... hint hint... let's leave it as we agree to disagree, or why don't you post pictures proving the point? I'll be happy to be PROVEN wrong.

Greg


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## Skeeterweazel (Feb 11, 2014)

I know you all have been dying to know how i'm coming w/ my bender. Ha!
Have been working on it a little at a time the last couple weeks. Finally got it done and it 

seems to work. Not pretty but that's OK. Made a big error: set the distance between the wheels 

equal to the track gauge instead of gauge plus one rail width. So made adaptors to make lower 

outside wheels have the right distance.


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## BigRedOne (Dec 13, 2012)

Looking good. If it works and is robust enough to keep its alignment, what more can one ask?


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Lookin' nice Skeeter!


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