I need to bend some 1" tubing to 90 deg, would it work if I packed the tube with ball bearings and bent with a press? I tried packing with sand but it didn't work too well.
- posted
15 years ago
I need to bend some 1" tubing to 90 deg, would it work if I packed the tube with ball bearings and bent with a press? I tried packing with sand but it didn't work too well.
You know what I do when I need a neat tight-radius bend in pipe or tube? I buy the elbow from Wagner and weld it on and sand off the welds. With care you can barely see it was welded, and their bazillion-dollar bender makes bends PERFECTLY.
shopwagner.com
Grant
On thin wall tubing, you might be able to use a heavy duty spring.
"Ted" wrote: (clip)would it work if I packed the tube
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If you try it, please send me a picture of the result. I visualize something like a cucumber. :-)
Are you supporting the sidewalls? I've seen homemade benders made up out of stacked disks of plywood with grooves for the tubing. No idea how well they work, but it seems to me that supporting both the inside and the outside might work better than just one or the other...?
Ideas to play with, anyway... --Glenn Lyford
It all depends on how tight. On some of the tighter bends, it is necessary to crush the outside and inside of the tube in a cosmetically acceptable fashion to have the displaced metal form an aesthetically pleasing final product. Other than that, weld on elbows or professional benders are the best way.
Steve
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.