Pipe Bender WIN!

**BenM78** · 16th July 2011, 04:26 PM

Further to this thread here - https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/pi...g-fail-120570/

I came across a post on another forum that showed the results of heating the die, hammering it a millimetre or so smaller and then bending tube. There is also a thread on this forum https://www.woodworkforums.com/f160/h...bender-137313/ showing the same process.

So I gots me a roaring fire going this arvo, with a bit of pipe hooked up to my vacuum on backwards to ensure plenty of heat and brought my 20NB die up to a dull red and proceeded to git it a thorough belting (forging I think they call it...)

First test bend when I got the bender...

Test bend after 'fixing' the die, this is the exact same piece of 20NB pipe BTW.

The die is a little tight and took a fair bit of persuading to release from the pipe, will file the high points down and see how it goes.

Suffice to say, it seems the chinese dies can be altered to achieve the outcomes expected of them if you are prepared to put a bit of time into fixing them... I really need a proper forge though - an open fire on the ground took a LONG time to get hot enough to heat cast iron!

Ben

**pjt** · 16th July 2011, 10:53 PM

Had the exact same problem bending tube, I fixed it by bending a piece of sheet metal and placing this in the die then proceeding to bend the tube effectively closing the die just like you have done

Pete

**festy_** · 20th July 2011, 07:51 AM

The difference a mm makes is amazing, isn't it?

pjt's post about lining with sheet metal reminded me of something else - if you want to bend RHS with your pipe dies, first get a piece of ~5mm solid round bar and bend that in the die you're going to use, so it conforms to the bottom of the die.
Then, stick the RHS in on top of it and bend away. The round bar pushes up the inner wall of the bend radius a little, stopping it from kinking.

I've made a few roof racks and things out of 20mm RHS this way - you just have to make sure everything is lined up properly before bending, because the die and rollers are designed for round pipe.
It works well enough and produces pretty consistent and neat bends.

**pjt** · 20th July 2011, 11:12 PM

Originally Posted by festy_

The difference a mm makes is amazing, isn't it?

pjt's post about lining with sheet metal reminded me of something else - if you want to bend RHS with your pipe dies, first get a piece of ~5mm solid round bar and bend that in the die you're going to use, so it conforms to the bottom of the die.
Then, stick the RHS in on top of it and bend away. The round bar pushes up the inner wall of the bend radius a little, stopping it from kinking.

I've made a few roof racks and things out of 20mm RHS this way - you just have to make sure everything is lined up properly before bending, because the die and rollers are designed for round pipe.
It works well enough and produces pretty consistent and neat bends.

That's a handy little trick

Pete

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