BottledCitrus Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 Whats been the most cost effective or efficient way of keep bending materials in stock for your sessions? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stranger Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 For me personally it was buying a box of 70d nails from Menards. Shipped to my house it was less than $100 and there's around 300 nails in the box. So about $0.33 per nail. Is there a certain bar, bolt or nail you're looking for in particular? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacksmith513 Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 wait till Home Depot has a clearance on nails.... Between 60d and 60d spirals. I have over 2000 nails for a fraction of the cost. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matek Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 Depends on where you live. I'm not an experienced bender but I had to look around a lot to find cost efficient and effective ways to train bending. I'm not in the US or Europe, and the most cost-efficient is to order relatively long bars that I can cut to length. I order from an industrial supplier. Longer is better because there is no cutting cost, but if I go too long, the shipping will be high. Where I live the sweet spot is around 1-1.1m (~40"). If you have access to 60d/70d/80d nails, I'm sure these are great and cheap options, as @stranger and @Blacksmith513 mentioned. When it comes to cost-effectiveness for bending training, I look around for different materials and shapes. I discovered that I can order low and medium carbon CRS (big difference) in 1mm diameter/width increments in round, hex (20-25% harder), and square (40-45% harder). Stainless is another option to fill some gaps, but can be expensive. Then drill rods can be a little bit expensive too but very-very effective, because they come in smaller increments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacksmith513 Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 Another money saver, is buying a couple devices that simulate bending.... At the very least, like we've talked about before, great for warm ups. And the good thing for me, even though havne't been able to go to my forge in a year for a couple reasons (that is changing VERY soon) But most steel I bend, I can straighten out and then forge with it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottledCitrus Posted May 10, 2022 Author Share Posted May 10, 2022 1 hour ago, stranger said: For me personally it was buying a box of 70d nails from Menards. Shipped to my house it was less than $100 and there's around 300 nails in the box. So about $0.33 per nail. Is there a certain bar, bolt or nail you're looking for in particular? Not really just more or less wondering. I can get bolts and nails no problem for a good price but, my problem is figuring out a way to train bending to get better at bending. Like. How do I do from a G8 to a 5/16 crs or 5/16 crs at different poundages without walking in an just hitting isos and feeling like I wasted my time. So in my mind i need more material to bridge those gaps and be able accomplish more in a session. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stranger Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 5 minutes ago, BottledCitrus said: Not really just more or less wondering. I can get bolts and nails no problem for a good price but, my problem is figuring out a way to train bending to get better at bending. Like. How do I do from a G8 to a 5/16 crs or 5/16 crs at different poundages without walking in an just hitting isos and feeling like I wasted my time. So in my mind i need more material to bridge those gaps and be able accomplish more in a session. @devinhoo put together this beautiful information guide https://eatchalkgetbig.square.site/estimations I personally reference it all the time. A good tweener for 1/4 grade 8's and 5/16 CRS is 1/4 square or 5/16 grade 2 bolts . I personally like Drill Rod a lot. Usually averages out to $1 a bar which ain't too bad. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
climber511 Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 find a steel supplier as close to you as possible. They will have "everything" you could want or need. Buy full length bars (20' long) - have them cut them just enough for transport in your car. Buy a pair of bolt cutters, angle grinder, or chop saw and cut pieces to length - (rounding the cut ends will save your pads). You can buy anything from 1/8" to whatever you're man enough to bend - either short or braced bending. They also will have drill rod in stock - a supplier is MUCH cheaper than any of the stores like Home Depot etc. Ask the guys about "drops" (left over pieces from where they cut for people) - they will often sell shorter pieces at a discount. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fist of Fury Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 1 hour ago, BottledCitrus said: Not really just more or less wondering. I can get bolts and nails no problem for a good price but, my problem is figuring out a way to train bending to get better at bending. Like. How do I do from a G8 to a 5/16 crs or 5/16 crs at different poundages without walking in an just hitting isos and feeling like I wasted my time. So in my mind i need more material to bridge those gaps and be able accomplish more in a session. Isos is not a waste of time. It's what bending is all about... Just train the kink with harder bars than your goal bar is and keep bending G8 bolts since they are harder than red nails in the sweep and crush usually. I think rebar is the cheapest bars you could find. However there are different types and they are all different. You have to try to find out if they are a good option for you. You can experiment with different wraps also to adjust the difficulty. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacksmith513 Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 1 hour ago, stranger said: @devinhoo put together this beautiful information guide https://eatchalkgetbig.square.site/estimations I personally reference it all the time. A good tweener for 1/4 grade 8's and 5/16 CRS is 1/4 square or 5/16 grade 2 bolts . I personally like Drill Rod a lot. Usually averages out to $1 a bar which ain't too bad. yes buy from @devinhoo.... I haven't yet due to the amount of nails I got at Home Depot. But i plan on it Like Climber said... DONT buy steel stock at Home Depot.. Buy lengths from a supplier.. Find a welding friend, m y welding friend retired 18 months ago, I got what I could, I should have taken it all because one drug addict loser ended up stealing and scrapping everything... But i'm too nice and wanted to leave stuff for other people... Is rebar ok to bend? I've always been afraid due to how much stock varies... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacksmith513 Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 1 hour ago, BottledCitrus said: Not really just more or less wondering. I can get bolts and nails no problem for a good price but, my problem is figuring out a way to train bending to get better at bending. Like. How do I do from a G8 to a 5/16 crs or 5/16 crs at different poundages without walking in an just hitting isos and feeling like I wasted my time. So in my mind i need more material to bridge those gaps and be able accomplish more in a session. There are all sorts of methods. And isos are very useful. A lot of people put kinks in what they are bending.. Let it sit for a week and then go for it. Also the shorter the stock, harder it is.. so you can always cut an inch off. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fist of Fury Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 24 minutes ago, Blacksmith513 said: yes buy from @devinhoo.... I haven't yet due to the amount of nails I got at Home Depot. But i plan on it Like Climber said... DONT buy steel stock at Home Depot.. Buy lengths from a supplier.. Find a welding friend, m y welding friend retired 18 months ago, I got what I could, I should have taken it all because one drug addict loser ended up stealing and scrapping everything... But i'm too nice and wanted to leave stuff for other people... Is rebar ok to bend? I've always been afraid due to how much stock varies... Yes rebar is good to bend. As I said it's the cheapest way to bend as long as you can find appropriate steel for your level. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacksmith513 Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 2 hours ago, Fist of Fury said: Yes rebar is good to bend. As I said it's the cheapest way to bend as long as you can find appropriate steel for your level. Thats good to know.. Its hit or miss to forge with, I know that so i've only messed with it. I have a bunch for work, but my dad gets pissed when I bend the scraps.. .he tells me to bend them back. People are much more stingy now because of the prices of stuff, but i'm pretty confident I can get some leftover rebar from fellow contractors. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottledCitrus Posted May 10, 2022 Author Share Posted May 10, 2022 Thank you guys 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fist of Fury Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 1 hour ago, Blacksmith513 said: Thats good to know.. Its hit or miss to forge with, I know that so i've only messed with it. I have a bunch for work, but my dad gets pissed when I bend the scraps.. .he tells me to bend them back. People are much more stingy now because of the prices of stuff, but i'm pretty confident I can get some leftover rebar from fellow contractors. Yes the cost of bending steel is a bit annoying. Rebar is like twice as expensive here now than it was pre covid-19. It's still cheap but it's still annoying that you get just half of what you got only two years ago for the same money. Prices on bolts are ridiculous actually. A high grade bolt like grade 8 and 10.9 and 12.9 costs like 2.5-3$ each which is expensive. Especially for people like me who doesn't respond at all to low volume training. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blacksmith513 Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 8 minutes ago, Fist of Fury said: Yes the cost of bending steel is a bit annoying. Rebar is like twice as expensive here now than it was pre covid-19. It's still cheap but it's still annoying that you get just half of what you got only two years ago for the same money. Prices on bolts are ridiculous actually. A high grade bolt like grade 8 and 10.9 and 12.9 costs like 2.5-3$ each which is expensive. Especially for people like me who doesn't respond at all to low volume training. Yeah, i should have been more specific a few year back when I said I like getting screwed... My two hobbies, while its still relative cheap, basically doubled right when I got into them. Nothing you can much do about it. What really hurts is putting $100 in the dump truck last week and that didn't even fill it up half way.. Its still a great sport/hobby. All we can do is keep on bending, the prices will come back down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devinhoo Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 On 5/10/2022 at 11:41 AM, stranger said: @devinhoo put together this beautiful information guide https://eatchalkgetbig.square.site/estimations I personally reference it all the time. A good tweener for 1/4 grade 8's and 5/16 CRS is 1/4 square or 5/16 grade 2 bolts . I personally like Drill Rod a lot. Usually averages out to $1 a bar which ain't too bad. As I've said before, I really like drill rod. It's something I try and bend about once a workout because it usually takes a lot out of me to finish off the bend because of the crush. It's not too expensive, so one or two per session won't break the bank either. A note on drill rod that you already mentioned is repurposing them; my uncle is a blacksmith and once or twice a year I send him upwards of 15 lbs of bent steel for him to play with. He texted me this morning that he was featured in a local museum and that some of my my steel made it into the exhibit as metal punches. For volume nails are going to be the most bang for your buck. They're the cheapest, however they vary the most compared to bolts or even stock. If you find a type of nail that is good for you like bright 70d's then buying a 50 lb box is a really good way to go. I put together some resources on where to get steel on r/Steelbending's wiki page, but if you're having trouble finding anything else let me know and I'll see if I have it saved somewhere. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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