tubing/pipe bending

[canman]

Hello everyone,
I am looking for ways to bend some round tubing/pipe with the least amount of distortion. Ranging from 1/2 to 4". Any ideas?:confused:
Please remember to pray for and support our troops!
Thanks in advance for your help.
canman:cool:

[habu68]

Lindsay books puts out a book on a simple pipe bender. The illistrations on the web site give a pretty good picture on how it is built.

Gingery's Pipe Bending Machine

[clark-kentski]

Hmm,the picture shows the fellow using a pretty fancy bowl lathe,to make the dies, i suggest going to ebay and search,hydraulic bender they start at 49.00+shipping.I dont think you will find anything to bend 4inch though thats some big pipe,good luck!

[Mylore]

One thing you could look at is an American Bender.

http://americanbender.com/index.html

The instructor to the course I took is the Canadian dealer for them. They seem to work well for bending hot and cold stock, and it says it will do pipe with the right dies. It starts at $600 and works its way up.

Hope it helps.

[Mills]

Pipe and tubing don't bend quite the same. Tubing needs better support. that range is a pretty tall order in my estimation. I have tried to bend 2" pipe hot and had no success at all. the pipe benders available for 100 bucks or so at Harbor fereight started looking cheaper by the minute. 1" tubing has proven to be a different breed of kitty cat. it requires much better dies than I have produced.

I just looked at the gingery book. if you have a bender such as a harbor freight knockoff for 50 bucks and the ability to make the dies then I believe you would be in business for up to 1" pipe ,hot, or 1 1/2" tubing maybe warmed a little. If you seriously are going to bend 4" tubing or pipe you are getting into another dimension. As an exercise it may be interesting, as a means to building something, I would either redesign or build with what was commerciallly available.

[Ted T]

Canman,
It sounds like to me that you have got some good opinions and options so far.
I believe a simple (cost effective) answer to you question becomes somewhat complicated due to the wide range of pipe size you want to bend (Ranging from 1/2 to 4".).
If your needs are going beyond the low cost benders you can find at Harbor Freight and other basic benders, then you are in what I would consider a range of need that would be considered challenging.
Keeping in mind the cost v. what is available to bend 4” pipe, or tubing is a whole lot different than 1” or 1

[Dodge]

I agree on the size range. Speaking as a person that worked for a company that manufactured pipe as well as bent a lot of it, I would say that 4" is at the lower end of the larger pipe sizes.

[Glenn]

Can you give us some specifics for what your trying to do? How many bends do you need to make and how fast?

For pipe say 1-1/4" sch 40 and up, go to a pipe dealer and they have pre-made 45*'s and 90*s' with beveled ends ready for welding. I have seen these pre-made fittings as large as 48" diameter. Pipe can be joined by screwed fittings available in many hardware stores and pipe shops. This is the industrial bending machine area, and it comes with an industrial price. But then it is designed to bend as much pipe as you can feed it in a 8 hour shift, and pays for itself rather quickly.

Tubing, conduit, etc suppliers usually sell a bender for $30-50. This can handle thin wall materials 1/2" to maybe 1 to 1-1/4" diameter. It uses leverage to make the bends. Remove the handle and it packs into a tool box.

For smaller tubing up to maybe 3/8" diameter, look into a tubing bender at auto supply shops. They have the benders $10-15 for bending things like break lines, gas lines, etc. Plumbing supply shops may have something like that also.

You may have to get 2, 3 or more machines to do the range of sizes you stated. Generally, one machine will not do them all.

Is maintaining the wall thickness an issue? When you make a bend usually the inside wall thickens and the outside wall thins in order to make the bend.

We really need more information of specific bends, pipe diameters, wall thickness, type of material, degree of the bend (22-1/2*, 45*, 90*) the radius of the bend, etc to be more specific in our answers.

[FredW]

When at the sheet metal shop we would heat the pipe and bend it with a manual bender if it was bigger than say an inch. Tubing we would put into a role former and go a little at a time. No sharp bends though, only large radius.

Fred

[clark-kentski]

I picked up one of those cheap benders,12 ton with 6 dies .5 to 2in today, worked great on that 3/4 schedule 40in the pic except you gota keep removing the work to check if you are at where you wanna be.I think its going to work fine for bending the railing of a little trailer im building i ll try to post the pics in the gallery it says im over size here:(

[habu68]

You don't need a fancy lathe to turn simple shapes like a bender template. A jig set up on a drill press can be used to form the die.
House of Tools -Canwood Drill Press Lathe Attachment

[canman]

Hello everyone,
Yes I was vague as to what I am building. I have a couple of "paying" projects plus a couple of rail buggy repair jobs. When I build things I normally overkill it. Thats why I had such a large range, Up to 4". There might even be some roll bars or bumpers in my future. The first project is a bicycle rack like they had when I was in school. The 70's, I was thinking about using some 1.5 seamless tubing. This job has to look good. This is my kind of client. Money is no object, just build it........ I have made several items for this guy and he just keeps on coming back. :D
Thanks for your Ideas and suggestions. Any more thoughts are welcome. Please remember to pray for and support our troops.

canman:cool:

[irnsrgn]

A #2 hossfeld will bend up to 2" cold but only large radius'. you will find that tubing bent at small radius' and short 180 bends is not off the shelf stuff, but special made, you can't bend regular exhaust pipe in one of those exhaust pipe benders, it is a special alloy tubing.