Wire mesh rolling

find a few fiber barrels or plastic barrels of the requisite diameter and create a form. Wrap wire on the form, if it is not that rigid it should be doable, like fence wire..

Sounds like fairly heavy wire mesh. We sometimes roll mesh on site by just clamping the ends and putting a piece of pipe inside (any diameter) then rolling the pipe on a hard surface. It will form the circle naturally to the clamped ends. You will have to tweek the last few inches but it works.

I have tried the barrel rolling trick. It does not make the circle i want. It has too many square angles.

This has to be pretty well uniform and I have to do several at atime so i need consistency.

I did find a rolling machine from ENCO. A machinist friend says he can cut grooves in the two rollers to accomodate the 4mm horizontal wires . That should do it for a smooth roll.

We'll find out soon.

Thank you all for the comments and suggestions.

I am in the wire mesh world as you can see from my website if you look up "Hamster Baskets" on google. All our work is done by hand - no fancy tools and we often have similar problems.

On this occasion you have only 8 wires to bend.

Lay the sheet of mesh on firm flat ground.

Find something like a tall gas cylinder or any strong cylinder, as large as possible.

Place this on the mesh so that it can roll along the mesh.

Holding the cylinder down by a weight - several people will do - starting at one end and pull each of the 8 wires upwards by hand very slightl one at a time - roll the cylinder along about 3 inches and repeat.

It is difficult to get the curve at the ends.

If you have the bending wire on the top the curve will follow the shape of the big cylinder better than if the other way up when it is likely to bend at the welds.

As you are making a very gentle curve do not bend too much at the start.

You may find that you can bend the 8 wires all in one if you put another small cylinder or pipe on the ground and try rolling the main one closer to it with weight on.

Two small pipes and one large one, pressing down on the big one and working along the mesh bit by bit should produce a gentle curve. As I said the ends are the hardest bit.

Good Luck

Thank you for the suggestion.

netmaker

if you examine a set of bending rollers. What they have are a set of three points that you can use to describe whatever radius you wish. All that is needed here is a jig that will do the same with this mesh and operate on the 8 wires at the same time. So it would be the width of the roll plus bolt space and long enough to encompass a little more than a single mesh length

A front slot to trap one full width wire and a rest plate for the next wire and a gap with a limit stop in it and a bar is pressed until you press the 8 wires as a set to meet the limit stop. The bar can be radiused to avoid a bunch of bend points and you will have to slightly over bend to allow for spring back. Depending on the strength of the wire you would just need to tighten a bolt at each end to band it. Loosen and advance to the next grip, tighten and repeat.

Thank you for the advice.

It complements what my machinist says he wants to do.

If we groove out the two rollers lengthways to accomodate the 6"x6" spacing, the wire will fall right into this slot and should pull the wire forward with as you say, an 'over bending'.

The Enco model we are looking at is $675 plus delivery to La. I could not build it here for those prices.

Thank you for the insight, as it corresponds closely to what we had been thinking of doing. It always makes more sense to hear it from other sources such as your self and folks on the forum.

When I first started searching I was looking at really big machine shop tools.....the Enco model was in a shop in NC that sells equipment to racing crews. It is for sheet metal but because of its weight, it can be adapted to wire mesh.............or at least we hope it can.

Have nice weekend.

netmaker

what enco model number are you referring to?

http://www.irvansmith.com/catalog2/parts/enco_slip_roll.shtml

The 50" manual slip roller

I wonder how thick those rolls are? Thick enough to cut a slot? I think you will not need a slot as you can roll it through as long as you make a flat wooden trestle to lay the incoming mesh on with some side rails to avoid sideways action. So low in cost these Chinese tools. 10 years ago, the quality was low, but now they are a lot better. Not up to Brown Boggs standards though. I wonder if BB now has a Chinese division to make some of their stuff?

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=130-5501

The rollers are solid, or so says their sales guy.

My machinist friend says he will cut some 6mm wide grooves lengthways along the 3inch dia. rollers. I had completely ignored the fact that every time the roller encounters the 6"x 6" welded intersection, that intersection will be 8mm deep.

By cutting 6mm wide and 4mm deep, we allow a little wiggle room and the slot should help pull the wire.

My concern too is for the Chinese built equipment.

I use a lot of chain, cable and hardware in the nets we build. I simply refuse a lot of the imported junk as being too dangerous.

The USCG bans some imported hardware on commercial vessels as it is prone to failure more often than not.

My guess is for $850 delivered to La., I can't be too wrong. We will turn about 250 -350 of these 4'x6' panels each year so it should hold up.

netmaker

maybe you can use hardwood.. but if you are just making one-off, just go to your local sheetmetal ductwork shop (if there are any where you are)...they will have the same tools, and will roll it for you.. Alternatively, if you are setting up manufacturing, you can post on http://www.mfgquote.com/ which is a large, if not the largest system out there for contracting manufacturing.

or maybe globalspec has a similar system.

Chris

ThANK YOU.

I found a unit that will do it for me and also roll 3/4" >5/6" round stock.

It will need a little machining but my podna will do that for me in his shop.

Thank you any way.

Keep in touch.

Netmaker