The Amazing Bramlette Bender

[Conehead]

Jim, that's a good one, nice job. Here is another can I did that illustrates the greatness of the Bender.

I bow to the master..

[idigrust]

lol

[renokenn]

That's amazing, flattened out the top to perfection

[Conehead]

Another dented can saved. I wasn't real sure how this one would turn out, but I'm happy with it.

[BLindstrom]

That’s impressive. I still get a lot of ripples when using the bender. I haven’t gotten the technique down of smoothing out the surface

[pinnacle-project]

Great work!

[Cap-Sealed]

bender.PNG (83.55 KiB) Viewed 782 times

[Conehead]

I have had a few guys ask me about how I use the bender so I thought I would provide some insight on how I use the tool.

As with any tool, practice will help a lot.

1. The real trick to using this affectively is to use a vice. Position the bender in the vice and work the can around the bender. It is tempting to just insert the tool through the holes, but by doing this you will likely damage the cone lips or opener holes.

2. Knowing where the bender is actually touching the inside of the can is also pretty difficult to master. I find that by moving the bender to different positions in the vice I can actually see the metal on the can start to move when pressure is applied. What I mean by this is that, if you get the lighting just right, when you slide the can across the bender you can actually see the metal move. Use just enough pressure so the metal moves but does not change shape (push outward permanently). When you start to see this you know right were the bender is and can start working on the dents you want to fix.

3. Every can dent seems to be different. The smaller dents/dings are pretty easy. Just slowly apply pressure until you start to see the metal bending outward. Sometimes they come right out smoothly and sometimes you have to rub the can back and forth over the bender to smooth out the finish. The tough dents are the ones with creases. With these I usually try and do just a small part at a time using judgment and experience on how best to get out the dent. With this type of dent you will often have the outer edges pop up and be an “outward” dent on the can. No worries, just take a hammer, (seriously), and very gently tap over the upward pushed dent so that it pushes back down. The tapping with the hammer is so light that I have never had any issues with scratching. Repeat the process of pushing up the dents with the bender and tapping down the dents with the hammer until you have a desired result.

3. I attached some images of my benders. Notice that I have rounded and kind of flattened the ends of mine. The ones from the supply shop will come with square ends which are not really useable without damaging the can. The retooled ends help to get closer to the edges and do finer detailed work after the major work is completed. I also made a smaller version for newer flat tops with smaller opener holes. You will find that the more recent cans have much weaker metal and take far less pressure to rework the dents.

So basically the keys are Pressure and Position. Good luck!

I really enjoy working on cans and have been able to bring back some really rough looking cans to being displayable again. I hope you can to!

Cheers,
Jim