Tubing Bender -- Real Metalworking for the Day

Jun 22, 2010 5 Replies
T

Tubing bender, for insanely small (5/32" or so) radii on 3/32" tubing.



Done yesterday evening and this morning, mostly from scrap:



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The slot in the bending post is made with a cutoff tool, with (obviously) no attempt made to radius the bottom of the slot (I'm sure it'd work better with the radius). 1/16" cutoff tool -- make one slot, move cutting head by .033" or so, make another half slot. Then make sure no one's looking, and tune the width of the slot to match the tubing!



It's a bit inconvenient when you need to bend past the handle, but the bender and a pair of pliers make short work of the jobs I've done so far



-- not too bad for a quick & dirty bender!


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W

Very Kewl!

You didn't mention ice, sand or Cerrobend. Did you do those bends sans filler?

--Winston

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T

Yes. That's why I needed a bender.

This is putting the "mandrel" in "mandrel* bent tubing". The slot is just barely wider than the tube OD; by keeping the OD from swelling across the bend radius the tubing is prevented (to some extent) from collapsing in the direction of the bend radius. There's still some flattening of the tube, because the outside has to stretch considerably, but it all works.

If I do a next one, I'll probably do it with drill rod and harden it -- but this'll probably last me for a while.

  • Not Mandrill-bent tubing -- my tubing jobs often look like there was a monkey involved, but no purple-faced ones.
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B

Nice. I love it when I can put my experience, tools, and "stuff" together & have it come out right.

But:

Tim Wescott wrote: ...

This is not mandrel bending. The mandrel in mandrel bending goes _inside_ the tubing to be bent.

Bob

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J

Nice quickie. Now-Steve specifies 50k or so file suze. There is no reason to Bogart

1+MB on his server for 2 pics. They could easily be 640X480 at 50-60KB and still look fine. JR Dweller in the cellar

Tim Wescott wrote:

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T

Oops -- thanks for the reminder.

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