Would like to make wavy pickets from rebar 5/8" . I have looked around the net and am not seeing anything out there. I make art and would like an artsy fence for the front of my property. This wouldn’t be to keep animals in more of a property delineation. This is what I am thinking. Will it work? How big of motor would I need. Direct drive or belt driven? I am thinking mount on a table. Any help or ideas would be appreciated
You will have a hard time running a heavy rebar or almost any bar through a gear to wave up like that, it will be trying to pull more in to follow the profile and will have very high drag and slippage.
For that size bar you will need a u shaped die on a hydraulic ram and a second ram holding the previously bent section in place as you work your way down the bar. A bender would be better but you will have a lot of metal sweeping around with that method.
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Sooo, this kinda stuff is my “jam” as the kiddos say. Love useing old material for off the wall designs. I use a hosfeld bender for this kinda stuff. That being said it ain’t easy, but it’s what I got and what I’ve learned to use, never tried 3/4 rebar but can man handle 5/8" no problem ( with the Manual handle extension, if you got money burning holding your pocket they make a hydraulic set up for it, I don’t have it because …kids and the cost of trying to raise them right…but any how once you figure out which flat face radius die you need, usually trial and error till I like the look , I would think you could make it happen, especially if you got son who needs some money for the weekend! I’ve made clamp on “stops” to help spead up lay out, and marking jigs help the process
A lot depends on how many pieces you need to make, how long they need to be, and how fast. Two wavy rollers would likely not produce a very straight picket. The horsepower required would depend on speed. I would say 100hp or more would be needed for something formed in minutes not hours. Gear or chain driven to handle the loads.
You might want to look at a pair of dies in a hydraulic press to form them in one go. 100 ton press brakes make wavy plates for retaining walls. That is with cold forming, if the rebar was red hot it would take much less force to press in the waves. The parts would come out very straight and all the same. That could be a plus or a minus depending on what you are looking for.
If you are willing to put in a lot of time, you could hand form them one bend at a time. Maybe ok for a gate, but maybe not practical for a long fence.