Bale Feeders for stock - Cheap & Quick

Step 3 Bending rods

For the top of the feeder a ring is required. Kiteman suggested I put in a bit regarding the bending of the rods. Since I haven't built my Vince Gingery pipe bender yet I decided to just bend the rods around the rim since that was already the right size. It's much easier with a helper.
In the beginning I put the tip of the rod through the rim's valve hole, hammered it down then wrapped the rod around the rim and cut the bent tip off (picture 2). Later I found that if the valve hole allowed   it was much easier to hold the rod with a vice grip, leading to a smother bend and less wastage (picture 3). Then using 3 vice grips I laid the rod in the rim, the first one not being removed. The next two leapfrogging each other so as to pull the rod into a nice ring correctly (picture 4&5). Cut off the extra bit, clamp it and weld (picture6). Take it off the rim and smack it till all the kinks are out.(7)