Van's Air Force
Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.
Conduit bender
- Thread starter mattsmith
- Start date
Special Delivery
Well Known Member
FWIW:
I had the same thought some 10 years ago... after all, I already owned most every size EMT and rigid bender made. How hard could it be? Well, after an attempt to bend the tubing cold with NO success, I then filled the tubing with sand and used massive quantities of gas to heat it during the process. I finally made some bends, but they weren't pretty. Not saying it can't be done with a conduit bender, just saying that I tried and couldn't get satisfactory results. Give it a try yourself. I think you'll find a new appreciation for the tensile and yield strength of 4130. I know I did!
I had the same thought some 10 years ago... after all, I already owned most every size EMT and rigid bender made. How hard could it be? Well, after an attempt to bend the tubing cold with NO success, I then filled the tubing with sand and used massive quantities of gas to heat it during the process. I finally made some bends, but they weren't pretty. Not saying it can't be done with a conduit bender, just saying that I tried and couldn't get satisfactory results. Give it a try yourself. I think you'll find a new appreciation for the tensile and yield strength of 4130. I know I did!
I know of at least one person who have had success by cross cutting the inside of the bend, bending, and then welding the cut whole again.
NYTOM
Well Known Member
About the only way to do it.
I used to do a lot of specialty bending in my job years ago with some of the bends in 1/4" to 10" pipe going to a over a 20' radius. Chrome moly pipe was very difficult to bend without kinks till we discovered "woods metal".
Sort of like a low temperature solder. We would melt the metal and fill the pipe from end to end and let it cool to a hardened state.
Then bend the pipe to spec after which we would heat the pipe till the metal flowed out. The results were a perfectly formed bend with no kinks. Can't remember the melting temps but it was somewhere around a 100 degrees or so.
As I recall a 50 gallon drum of the stuff cost billions of dollars according to the suits up in the office.
Any good piping fab shop could probably do the bend if you don't mind writing a huge check.
I used to do a lot of specialty bending in my job years ago with some of the bends in 1/4" to 10" pipe going to a over a 20' radius. Chrome moly pipe was very difficult to bend without kinks till we discovered "woods metal".
Sort of like a low temperature solder. We would melt the metal and fill the pipe from end to end and let it cool to a hardened state.
Then bend the pipe to spec after which we would heat the pipe till the metal flowed out. The results were a perfectly formed bend with no kinks.
Can't remember the melting temps but it was somewhere around a 100 degrees or so. As I recall a 50 gallon drum of the stuff cost billions of dollars according to the suits up in the office.
Any good piping fab shop could probably do the bend if you don't mind writing a huge check.
A search found:
Unless you just GOTTA do it yourself:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=61847&highlight=stick+bend
Unless you just GOTTA do it yourself:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=61847&highlight=stick+bend
