Bending aluminum

[crazyjim]

I bought one of thoe Du Bro tubing benders to bend aluminum tubing (1/8") and the tubing always cracks on me. Brass tubing bends just fine.

Any tips on bending aluminum tubing?

[MonoPed]

I bought one of thoe Du Bro tubing benders to bend aluminum tubing (1/8") and the tubing always cracks on me. Brass tubing bends just fine.

Any tips on bending aluminum tubing?

Slide some styrene rod into the tube, then pull it out after you've bent it. And go slow as you bend the tube.

[Kit Basher]

Somewhere on this forum I found the idea of putting solder inside the tubing before bending it. It has to fit pretty good. I bent an exhaust pipe that way, lots of sharp bends, with no breaks or kinks. When I was done bending, I held it over a torch for a few seconds, gave it a flip, and most of the solder came out.

[scale trucker]

tape one end fill with flour and pack it then tape the end..bend slowly

[MikeMc]

Your bending too quickly, alum will harden an fracture. If you are not getting any crushing or flattening at the bend, no need to fill the inside with sand, solder or plastic. You can GENTLY HEAT the tubing...but I've never had to with alum. Another tip is do not try to bend at the end of your tube...go more to the middle and then go slow, let it relax and try not to bend the whole angle in one shot....let the metal have a "break" so it doesn't

[58 Impala]

I have bent aluminum tubing by putting a short piece of solid aluminum rod or solder (if you can find the exact diameter) where the bend needs to be. No breakage or collapsing.

[MonoPed]

Slide some styrene rod into the tube, then pull it out after you've bent it. And go slow as you bend the tube.

The roll bars on both of these were bent with this method, no crushing or breaking. I left the styrene rod in the Cobra bar, and removed it from the Scarab bar:

[Pete J.]

Ok, this may sound a little silly, but why are you using tubing? Just because the 1:1 has bent tubing to make something doesn't mean that you have to use tubing on your model. I have had much better luck bending aluminum rod. You don't get any deformation to speak of and if you take your time it is less likely to crack. By the way, this principle applies to other things like fuel and pneumatic lines. Wire works just fine for these and nobody will say anything about it not being hollow.

[crazyjim]

Thanks for the help, fellas. I'll try the styrene rod first.

Pete J - I'm trying to make better exhaust pipes and sometimes they need to be bent - as in just a short tip coming out of a muffler.

[Pete J.]

Thanks for the help, fellas. I'll try the styrene rod first.

Pete J - I'm trying to make better exhaust pipes and sometimes they need to be bent - as in just a short tip coming out of a muffler.

Ah! Now that makes sense.

[Harry P.]

Thanks for the help, fellas. I'll try the styrene rod first.

Pete J - I'm trying to make better exhaust pipes and sometimes they need to be bent - as in just a short tip coming out of a muffler.

You can still use rod instead of tubing. All you have to do is drill out the end a little... you don't have to go far. A dab of flat black in there and nobody will ever know that your exhaust pipes aren't really hollow!

[Aaronw]

Those spring benders work fairly well, but for sharp turns I've had better luck bending it around tubing the diameter of the bend. So say I want a turn about 1/4" in diameter I'll get a piece of 1/4" styrene tubing then gently massage the aluminium tubing around the styrene tubing with my thumbs.

[oldnslow]

Need a little help, I'm trying to bend some 3/16" aluminum tubing for set of header collectors. I've tried gently bending it by hand, the spring benders that slide over the tubing and inserting silver solder that just fits inside the tubing, so far they all have left kinks or not able to bend a tight enough radius, I'd like to get down to 1/4". Anyone have any success with this?

Thanks, Robert

[Harry P.]

I've heard of filling the tubing with fine sand. Unlike slipping solder inside, even after a fairly tight bend the sand will always just pour out... but sometimes the solder or wire that you slipped in before the bend will be impossible to pull out.

[scalenut]

even with a set of tube-benders, certain tubing will only kink,split or ripple because it's too hard,, tube made for bending in a smooth tight radius is a specific manufactured type of tubing weather it be brass/copper/aluminum or steel.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXR811&P=FR

Edited December 5, 2011 by scalenut

[oldnslow]

Thanks for the info, I haven't tried sand yet and the tubing is K&S from the LHS.

Robert

[crazyjim]

I have a little bender that was suggested by Romell (I think). It was also suggested to not try and do a bend in aluminum all at one time. Bend a little, wait a few minutes, bend a little more, etc. etc. Something about the aluminum trying to remain in it's original configuration.