Help with making a bull dozer blade...

[daveimi]

Hi All
Looking to make a big blade similar to the type of thing Behemoth has. I was under the impression a nice piece of sheet metal would be the best to make this from. Can anyone give me a clue as to how I go about bending it into a curve? Also looking for recommendations on type of metal and thickness (I'm guessing steel around the 3 - 5 mm mark). I've seen big roller machines in Dad's mates workshop for doing car body panels, but wondered if there was a bodge way I can do in the garage lol
Dave

[daliad100]

If you can set up some sort of brake press style thing then you can try bending it a bit, move it a bit, bend some more etc. until you reach the desired curve.

[typhoon_driver]

other way to do it with thicker panels would be to cut a number of pieces and weld them up in a curve

[Eventorizon]

Behemoths scoop is (I think) 6mm Titanium Grade 6. It took a 100 Tonne hydraulic press being run at 300 tonne just to bend it into shape! Your best bet is probably to do as Gary says and make it out of lots of bits to get your curve. Or, if your piece is thin enough, you can put it in a sheet metal roller.

[daveimi]

Ok that's great. Will have a think.

[plargen]

if you get hold of an old gas bottle you could probably make 2-3 scoops out of it and i think there between 3-4mm thick so if you had the weight you could bolt 1 on top of the other to make it stronger (make sure the valve has been left open for ages or fill it with water first)

[Liftoff]

if its a featherweight you're building, keep an eye on the weight, a moderate size steel scoop 5mm thick will easily weigh around 5kg. That's more than a third of the overall weight gone into one component...you'd have to be careful with the rest of the build...

[daveimi]

Yeah I was thinking it's gonna be heavy. I have a little robot I've made that's been a secret project for a few months. I used wood to perfect the drive train and am now looking to bring everything together. The "drive pod" looks like a Mac Mini and I wanted the blade to add on. I'm not sure if anyone has see Jim Smentowski's "Breaker Box" from the USA??...

Also...do you know if people are open to commision work, i.e. they'd make you a blade if you showed them a rough idea of what you wanted?

[Eventorizon]

We know Breakerbox. His blade is 5mm G5 Titanium and was water jet cut the rolled in an industrial machine. If you are trying to copy that style then make a composite one or make a strong underlying structure with a replaceable front.

[daveimi]

Yeah not copy per se, but I like his weapon and think it's something a bit different. I will look at amending my sketches to include a replaceable front.