Awesome Bending

Get your daily dose of engineering porn with this video from Uwe Krumm GmbH. The company makes precision tooling for manufacturing, including the press brake tools shown here. It’s a hypnotic and satisfying 6-minute sequence of sheet metal being bent into complex shapes through the simple application of force.

Creating bent wood objects typically involves cutting a repeated series of slots known as kerf cuts to help the wood to flex. But one side effect of this process is that it leaves unsightly gaps which must be covered up. JAR Made shows off a neat technique using a tapered router bit that makes those gaps nearly invisible.

We’ve seen how factories make full-size chain-link fencing by bending and twisting stiff wire. Now watch how it’s done on a much smaller scale. W&M Levsha created this custom machine that bends copper wire into the proper angles to make a mini fence. The weaving still needs to be done by hand though.