Bending AR500?

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Scratch
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Bending AR500?

Post by Scratch »

Has anyone here tried bending AR500 steel? I have a customer that's a runner. He has a 5.11 plate carrier and uses Rogue steel plates in it for weight. They are strictly for weight and even have a big sticker that says "NOT SUITABLE FOR ARMOR PLATING" or something like that. He came to me because he wanted to up his weight and the heaviest weight Rogue has is a 20 pound total vest. He wants to go heavier but when he tries adding more Rogue plates to his vest, it's super uncomfortable because they aren't bent at all. I told him I could bend them so I made a set of plates for him to try and it worked great! He now has a 30 pound vest and because of the bends, he says it's more comfortable than the 20 pounder!

I got to thinking that maybe I should try making some from AR500 steel...? I know it won't have spall protection at all, but I can buy spall protection sleeves for them and I don''t know, might be fun to have! I'm planning on buying some AR500 anyways for some targets, but thought before I cut out a set, I'd ask if anyone here has done any bending of that stuff first.

Here's one of the plates I cut and bent for my customer. I used my 30 pound press and SWAG Off Road finger brake.
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I think I'm the oldest 10 year old boy on the forum...
plasmanewbie
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Re: Bending AR500?

Post by plasmanewbie »

Geeez...buddies a glutton for punishment!

Never bent AR so can't help but I'm sure someone here has.
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cstroke
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Re: Bending AR500?

Post by cstroke »

I've bent AR 400 normally it says 400F which from what i'm told means formable.
You need to use oversized dies.
8x the die size doesnt work for AR you need to upsize. Example. .25 is a 2" Bottom die you should probably be at a 3" or 4" bottom die.
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