Bending AL tubing

[coles-webb]

Here are some homemade tube benders.

http://www.blindchickenracing.com/to...bingbender.htm

http://www.rutuonline.com/html/tube_bender.html

Mike

[WJHartson]

I work in the aluminum industry for over 30 years in potrooms to rolling mills. Molten aluminum is silver and not red. What you see in the troughs is a reflection of the heated refractory. In a furnace you see the glowing refractory and reflections from the flames. Depending on alloy the melting is about 1000 degrees F.

Joe

[aboard_epsilon]

What I was trying to say ...is that it does not go red .....therefor.. there is no indication when your heating it ..when it will melt .
surely people can read my post ......and sort of gleam enough from it...to sort of work out what I was tring to say ....and not interperate it literally..
think from now on im going to be writing very long posts and spending hours making sure they are understandble to the few that cant .
For all who understand it
for all who didnt..
all the best.mark

[WJHartson]

Aboard_Epsilon,

Your post was a good one. You don't need a lot more detail. My comment were not intended to reflect on your post. Just giving additional information to help.

Joe

[aboard_epsilon]

was not having a go at you directly joe .
just that there were severel mentions of the "red" thing after my post .
thanks for your acknowledgement.
all the best.mark

[ben78]

As for the red thing, I have definitely seen 'red' on molten aluminium and it was no where near the furnace at the time. It was however night time and outside which shows it up heaps better.

Getting the MAPP setup tomorrow and will have a crack at the annealing thing in the arvo. Might have a look at tubing benders too.

For anyone that is interested I am making an attachment for the hose that will have a crooked end on it for cleaning mud/sand/salt from underneath my 4wd after adventures. (Kinda like the Staun one for anyone that knows it.)

[Evan]

Maybe I didn't explain well enough. Yep, molten aluminum at 1200آ° glows red. Not very brightly though. Aluminum is a very good reflector and it reflects most of the internal heat/light back into the puddle. It would be visible in the dark as said. It's just that around 95% of the visible light is not escaping the metal. Also, since it is such a good reflector then if there is any ambient light it reflects that too so it looks silvery. (aluminumy?) Everyone is right.

[ben78]

Got the MAPP kit today, bought a bottle, a autostart trigger, a pencil nozzle, a bronze & aluminium & nickel silver brazing rods and a plumbing kit (solder and flux pots)

First up I made sure it would get hot enough and brazed two pieces of aluminium together. I then proceeded to melt some aluminium just to get a feel for it.

Did the detergent trick as per above and yep, it turned black after a short time. Cooled it off under the tap, plugged one end and filled with sand, did the bending and drained the sand (no issues with sand packing too tight). Then hooked it up to the hose and gave it a blast, mostly to clean it out.

I was wondering what I would have to do to harden the Al again as after annealing it was VERY soft, however over the last couple of hours it seems to have returned to pre annealing hardness - does this sound right??

Anyway, am very happy with the turn out with the mapp torch - although I am now looking for a hose so I can use the trigger with a LPG bottle... This thing is going to be fun

[Evan]

Ben,

It depends on the alloy. Many of the heat treatable alloys may be annealed for working. After cold work they will age harden over a period of hours and days to close to the original state. That is normal for many alloys.

[Your Old Dog]

Here's two more cents!

I've found to anneal most of the common aluminums readly available at hardware stores you only need to heat it up till it's too hot to hold onto.

When gold and silver inlaying with .015 wire I simply draw the wire fairly quick thru a birthday candle and it hangs limp and inlays much easier.

If I were annealing your aluminum tubing I'd simply hold one end of the tube with a work leather glove and heat the other end. By the time it's too warm to hold I'll bet you a buck it's annealed. Try it before you go thinking it's much harder to do than that.

Good luck

Ray...........

[snowman]

There used to be an oldtimer trick with a piece of wood or something.

You heat the metal, run the wood across it and if it leaves soot it's not hot enough.

Anybody knowledgeable enough to explain?

-Jacob