bending stainless steel tubing

Unless the dies match the diameter of your tubing, you should expect the dimpling you spoke of. I expect that your plumbing dies are not the proper size, considering there is no pipe with a 5/8" diameter.

I'm not convinced heating will help avoid your problems. With the proper dies, you should be able to bend your project, cold, with no trouble. Hot working stainless isn't exactly recommended due to intergranular corrosion, which may not be an issue if your project is ornamental and has no mechanical requirements.

Harold

What's radius is gentle? When I was in the marine hardware fab business we bent long sweeps into polished ornamental tubing around a semi- inflated tire. The desired shape was drawn on the layout bench. With a little practice it wasn't hard to get within 1/8" of the line. This was generally 1" x .083 wall tube. Minumum radius was perhaps 24".

Ned Simmons

Imperial Eastman makes benders for 5/8" OD tubing. You might have some luck at a refrigeration supply place. I think refrigeration tubing is measured at the OD and comes in 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" ...

Bob