A tube bender saga

[mdavi]

I know this is an ancient thread (at least in today's terms), but this is of great interest to me. Any way of sharing some photos? This have been erased by the photobucket monster.

[George Bulliss]

thanks guys.....a real blast from the past . I'd thought to make some drawings and send it in to George for consideration....its percolating somewhere in the 500 item to do list

You need to retire so you can find more time for work

[Mcgyver]

thanks guys.....a real blast from the past . I'd thought to make some drawings and send it in to George for consideration....its percolating somewhere in the 500 item to do list

[SpoonerandForker]

Should I ever commit a heinous crime, I consider this important work towards my insanity defense. It handles tubing from 1/8 to 3/8 by 16th’s

I think you qualify for that defense, and I hope to have the room next to you in the boobie hatch. That is exceptional work and a pleasure to see. Thank You for positing the eye candy.

[Willy]

Buenas amigo me encanto su maquina me ayudarيa en fotos mas detalladas para yo fabricar una copia de su hermosa maquina. gracias espero su pronta respuesta

Exactly my thoughts as well.
I remember seeing this beautifully executed project when it first appeared here. Although I did not comment on it then I must now as it truly deserves an encore appearance.
Well done, almost too nice to risk marring it up by actually using it.

Edited to add:

I should have included the translation from Google translate....

Good friend I loved your machine in more detailed help me to make a copy of your beautiful machine photos. Thanks I hope your prompt response

[Richard D]

I wonder how much time went into making that? Excellent workmanship.

[Richard P Wilson]

(stupid image limitation)

here's a close up showing the fairly decent shape that is maintained. ideally the bend looks like 1/4 of a torus without kinks or ploughed-up leading edge to the bend.



Nice work, both the bender and the

of course, if you're going to make a tube bender, you're going to do so for all sizes of tubes and radii. Should I ever commit a heinous crime, I consider this important work towards my insanity defense. It handles tubing from 1/8 to 3/8 by 16th’s



after cutting to length and some emery and polish work, here's the finished product. It’s sitting on the block to which it will one day be attached. Imo it turned our well, its a .5" centre radius bend in a 5/16 tubing. Still, the Stuart plans (this is for a triple expansion) calls for a 5/16 centre line bend, the accomplishment of which still eludes me, even with this rig. perhaps filling with cerro or something.

Nice work, both the bender and the pipe! My drawings for the Stuart triple, dated 1955 show a 5/16" inside radius, so on 5/16 dia pipe, that would be 15/32" centre line radius, near enough to 1/2" for me! I've got to do a similar pipe for the No3 compound, but on 1/2" dia, luckily no bend radius specified.

[metalmagpie]

Another of McGyver's old threads turned into a zombie!

[flylo]

Yea what he said(I hope) That bottom one looks like a 7/8" dia solid SS door handles for glass doors. I bought the elect/hyd bender but only have the 7/8" dies but the bottom pic looks exactly like the ones it bends.

[urrutia]

(stupid image limitation)

here's a close up showing the fairly decent shape that is maintained. ideally the bend looks like 1/4 of a torus without kinks or ploughed-up leading edge to the bend.



of course, if you're going to make a tube bender, you're going to do so for all sizes of tubes and radii. Should I ever commit a heinous crime, I consider this important work towards my insanity defense. It handles tubing from 1/8 to 3/8 by 16th’s



after cutting to length and some emery and polish work, here's the finished product. It’s sitting on the block to which it will one day be attached. Imo it turned our well, its a .5" centre radius bend in a 5/16 tubing. Still, the Stuart plans (this is for a triple expansion) calls for a 5/16 centre line bend, the accomplishment of which still eludes me, even with this rig. perhaps filling with cerro or something.

Buenas amigo me encanto su maquina me ayudarيa en fotos mas detalladas para yo fabricar una copia de su hermosa maquina. gracias espero su pronta respuesta

[kf2qd]

Better bore on copper pipe

Worked for a while for a company that built air conditioner coils. They put very tight bends in copper by using a mandrel on the inside of the tube that had a floppy ball bearing (for lack of a better description) that was positioned so it was just at the point where the tube wanted to collapse as it was bent. Still used the inside radius block and the straight shoe on the outside of the bend. Did 10 & 12 foot hairpins out of 1/4, 5/16, 3/8 & 1/2 copper tube, six hairpins at a time. 5/16 was the most common and they bent it with 1 & 1-1/2 inch hole spacing.

[Lynn Standish]

The Spanner.....

in the photo on Page 2 of this thread looks like the same solution I came up with for a KDF 5C collet boring bar holder.

[JMI]

... The finish is just the wipe on blue done to help fight rust.

Simply beautiful. Gives me something to aspire to.

As for the bluing, is this a gunsmithing blue? Like a Birchwood Casey product?

Thanks

Jim

[dsergison]

wow mcgyver, that is cool.

[Mcgyver]

thanks gents, Wes, its whether it works that counts. different style than mine, wonder how it would be on small radius stuff? I don't claim superior design, other than what i can goggle, what i come up with is without the benefit of the tricks and tips of the trade.

David, if i tried stainless, something would break. either the bender or a chest muscle. then again it wasn't 1200 bucks either

Errol, All pics are done with a nikon p3 point and shoot. I would like a digital single lens reflex, but haven't splurged yet. size are usually to 600 so it fits a browser - a fraction of what the originals are. i take at max size so i can crop if i want. understand your point about pic, its a compromise either way.

What I've found is the trick for getting decent P&S results is 1) the P3 at least lets me control the aperture so i set at the highest F stop and 2) use a tripod and no flash. Exposure times are long, but the pics are decent. The frustrating part with P&S is that you can't control focus and the screen really doesn't convey how well focused the shot was. If I doubt the quality of focus, I usually take many shots moving the camera slightly each time, figuring that if I give the autofocus enough different samples, one will be ok.