Bending RP1 & 2

[brainbug007]

I was reading the bit in the book about making these rails and it recommends using a friendly plumber to bend the pipes or using a vice & hammer and hoping it doesn't damage the pipe too much... Anyone got a good way of doing this without buying a £100+ pipe bender? I take it all the low end ones that are for 15mm & 22mm won't be able to do it?

[eSteve]

brainbug2007,

I bought a 15/22 mm pipe bender for £5-00 off eBay, it was only a few miles away so picked it up, postage would probably have been high since it is heavy and an awkward shape. As you describe it's a low end one, made for bending copper central heating pipe.

It did manage the job of bending my rear tubes, the material / dimensions of which are to book specification.

I added a couple of extensions (slip some large diameter pipe over the handles), used all my weight on it and got it to bend. I must admit there were a few swear words and bulging veins though.

Wouldn't have liked to do more than four.

Hope that helps.

[gaz05]

It's quite easy to bend or snap a bender made for bending copper. What I did was take the former out of the bender and put it in a vice then made a clamp to hold one end of the pipe. Put some pressure on and then shock it round gently using a soft mallet. A 22mm former is slightly too large to bend 19mm tube so I wedged out the sides with crescent shaped bits of 1mm plate. Bit of a clart but came out lovely

[Davey]

If we're talking about the rear tub frame tubes I took mine to a local electrical installer and asked them to bend them in their conduit bender. Turned out the owner is a petrol head and they did it for the promise of a ride in the car .

D.

[Tilly819]

i bought 4 weld bends and just cut the straight bits of pipe then welded in the bends

easy as pie

tilly

[spud69]

You can use a plumber pipe bender if you get stuck, but it is hard work and will flatten the pipe a bit in the 22mm side. You will get the correct radius though, try some heat to soften the tube and take it slowly.

Try some local fab shop they may have some pipe benders you could have the use of for biscuit fund.

Andrew

[AshG]

got my mate dave the plumber to do mine. got it nice and hot then bent it in the 22mm side of his pipe bender. mine come out perfectly

we did it bit at a time keeping it nice and hot as we gradually increased to 90 deg. if you try and do the whole 90deg in one hit you will flatten the pipe

[brainbug007]

Nice one, thanks for all the advice. Hopefully I can find a local with some good kit to do it for me but at least if all else fails these methods should work nicely

[Locky]

A sparkys conduit bender i would say is your best bet...... I have a conduit bender if anyone in the area needs to do some bending....

[alga]

I made a former out of timber, used lots of clamps and a 33.7x2.6 tube slipped on the free end of the tube being bent. The tube flattened a bit, but the outer radius is nice and smooth.