Bending PVC Pipe - Anybody Done It?

Joe, I know this is OK on the gray PVC used for electrical conduit. They make heat blankets to warm the stuff for bending. I used a propane fired "torpedo heater" to warm some 4" gray PVC when bending it to conform to my building. The guy from Puget Power said that he had seen this done many times with a torch and the PVC was blistered and burnt from this. But the torch bent stuff would still pass code if not too bad. Just my .02. ERS

On Fri, 30 Jul 2004 09:52:03 -0400, Joe vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:
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Geez! What a slacker!
I feel for you. Been there with the trencher. But what happened to "drag sideways" when you hit a rock?
If the pipe has not been discoloured by your bending, then it's probably OK.
If you are really unsure, buy a yard or so of sand, and fill around the work.
The guy down the road is my "millionaire hero". I live in tough ground, and did it the dreamer's way. No money..pick and shovel, jackhammer, trencher, rock drill, dozer...loader, backhoe.
This other guy made a million in other pursuits and bought a place nearby. He also bought dozers and loaders, rock breakers and rock saws etc.
Now, he will _hire_ those rock machines out at a profit! But he _uses_ a loader and an old dozer to create piles of soil that he then places on top of the clay and rock, then does what he wants......
It was a lesson to me. This guy makes much money breaking hard ground. But for himself, he covers it with soft ground and works from there. ***************************************************** It's not the milk and honey we hate. It's having it rammed down our throats.

Be very carefull about the fumes, PVC is NASTY.

That's what my chiro said, too; he counts on my business.
Simple: I got "drug sideways". The machine is driven only by the left wheel when the axle lock is off, so it tends to go to the right, unless countered by a lot of force (my comparatively puny self). Even with the lock on, however, it tends to skew towards the right when it bounces on a rock - which it does every few nanoseconds. Hence the butt-kicking.
What? I need to spend more money? Hasn't my sweat and blood been payment enough? Actually, that sounds like a good idea. I also could leave out the stones, but there wouldn't be enough left over to fill the trench...
The guy across the street was an EE who used to play with "big toys". Has a Case loader, lotsa other muscular stuff. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago he turned his play time into a career when he bought the local tractor dealership. Now he hasn't got the time to keep his personal stuff running, and the other stuff is his bread-and-butter. Bummer.
So, has anyone done this with success, on a pressurized line? I expect I'll go ahead with it anyway.
Joe

||> >ground is 50% red clay and 50% rock, so I don't want to have to dig up ||> >this installation ever again; the "walk-behind" (really a drag-behind) ||> >trencher already has kicked my butt, and I need to close the book on ||> >this chapter.
You know, those rocks tend to move about a bit. You will be back to that pipe, eventually. Been there Texas Parts Guy

I watch them do it all the time on swimming pools. They heat it with a 2" ahhh burner and glue it in hot. Granted they know what they are doing. The deck crew pounds stakes through the pipe and the plumber has to come out and fix it. If it kinks your not doing it right or expect to much as for distance. 20 degrees in how far and what Dia.? When they plumb the pool they heat up 20' and drag it into the ditch and glue it up. The hot blue glue is what I use , but they like the slow gray stuff. Just keep the ends hard , don't kink it, or burn it. Plus paint it cause it doesn't like sun light.

I would not put a heat bend in pressurized PVC pipe. Too much risk of creating a weak spot. If the bend is near a fitting it will be difficult to make a good joint. Electric or drain conduit, maybe.
It is fine to just cold bend sched 40 pvc 20 degrees in a gradual sweep over 10'. You actually get better flow and more strength that way than using fittings everywhere. (At least if you are using bell-end pipe sections, those are stronger connections than regular fittings because of the much longer contact area.) Glue the pipe together on the ground, let it cure then just lay it in the trench.
If you don't want to be dealing with that pipe again:
1. Use sched 40 pvc, nothing thinner. Consider a heavy-duty black poly but only if you use brass barb fittings not plastic.
2. Clean out the trench so there are no rocks within a couple inches of the pipe. If you don't want to buy sand, make a screen using a couple foot square piece of 1/2" hardware cloth in a 2x4 frame. Shovel the spoil through the screen right into the trench. When you've sifted enough to bed the pipe, pack it down and then dump the rest of the junk on top.
If it's a long run, go up one diameter to get better flow.

There are 45* and 22 1/2* pressure fittings made for this stuff. A swing joint can be made to any angle with 2 90* fittings - turn 1 up and the other down with a short nipple between them.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing. . . . DanG
bend is and can't the glue while the and it fix. The finally before). Our dig up drag-behind) book on the heat content).

I guess the answer to the OP is NO. I wouldn't even think of close to 125pis. in sch 40. 55 psi would be more like it. That or dig it all back up and start over.
I've put whole pools/spas up to 65 psi for days to convince people that the water evaporates a 1/4 a day out here. And with no sand and being rough during construction.
Wish people would leave toughs upside down spray cans around with something else in it. I was swinging a brick hammer at the caps under pressure not long ago. I do cringe , but I need to see the white of the pipe out of the corner of my eye. They are around 40 psi , when I look.
The commercial pools can get scary. Kinda. What is funny is that I can't take care of a commercial pool cause I don't have the licence to do it.