Bending Steel Tubes?

[samlarsen]

Anyone know ought about bending steel tube?

I have crack-pot idea which will involve bending some circa 40 dia 2mm wall steel tube into 90 deg radius.

Anyone have experience here? I see a pipe bender can be bought cheaply enough, I just wonder if they are any good?

I'd rather keep all the work in house but if I need to go outside to a fabby its probably best I know before wasting time and money!

Many thanks

Sam

 

[RogerS]

Hi Sam

Pipe benders that I've seen and used come in two sorts. Floor mounted and hand mounted. However, none of those I've seen or used have the capacity to go to 40mm. If you do find a hand mounted one then I reckon that unless you're Arnold S then you'll not be able to bend it. Even with a floor mounted bender I reckon you'd be hard pressed. Might be easier to go 'outside'

Roger

 

[les chicken]

Sam

With my engineering hat on, to bend pipe of those dimensions you would need an hydraulic pipe bender, not cheap to buy. A fabricating shop would do this for a reasonable price I would have thought.

Les

 

[jasonB]

As Les says you will need a hydraulic bender, you can hire them from the likes of HSS but it may well be easier to get a steel fabricator to do it for you, one with a mandrel bender would give the best results.

Jason

 

[Hitch]

You can buy hydaulic pipe benders for around £100,
They will easily bend 40diam 2mm wall tube, but you will get quite a big flat on the outside and ripples on the inside. The thicker the wall, the better result you would get.
Take it to a decent fab shop, and they will do it for you, or there are places that specialise in tube bending.

I have know idea what you are planning, but would it be an option to cut the tube and weld to a 90 degree preformed bend? Probably easier if its a one off.

 

[samlarsen]

Thanks guys. All useful info, particularly interested to hear that the £100 hydraulic bender doesnt give a high qulaity finish.

I have decided to go with mitred corners with a gusset for the first one (a prototype) then move over to the quicker bent steel frame for the final item. Looks like I'll go outside for the tube bending work. Trouble is there's not many places locally.

Thanks

Sam

 

[Hitch]

Do you have acess to welding gear Sam?

Have you thought about using a preformed 90 degree bend? just cut the tubes square and weld to the bend.

 

[samlarsen]

Hitch,

The bends are for the corners of a rectangular steel frame. Onto the frame I'll be stick welding some brackets and fittings.

The radius at each corner isnt a requirement for the design, but would save welding time during later copies if the mitre could be replaced with a neat radius at each of the four corners.

I'll run with the mitre for the first one since it'll probably go in the bin after the inevitable learning phase is over!

Cheers for the help

Sam