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OT - How to bend Aluminum tubing

pak

Cast Iron
Joined
Oct 31, 2007
Location
Miami Fl, USA
I have just received a request from a friend of mine who recently paddle boarded across the Gulf Stream from Bimini to Miami in seventeen hours straight to raise awareness of plastic in the ocean. Now that he has accomplished that, he wants to know how to bend a 1.5 or 2 inch Aluminum tubing into a uniform circle with a diameter of about 6' 8". This from a young guy who builds wooden boats from scratch and helps disabled people learn how to sail. He is a master wood craftsman, but knows nothing about metal. He needs our help for his next charity. And bye the way, he has no budget. This is a 'nuts and berries' kind of guy.

While I have done similar things on a smaller scale, I have cannot advise him on this project. I would think he would build a wooden jig of the proper diameter and fill the tubing or pipe with sugar sand (or equivalent) to prevent kinking. Once the AL was properly bent, he would take it to a pro for welding and faring. I would think it would be thin wall AL. It doesn't have to be terribly strong; just rigid enough to hold his weight without bending. He is about 175 lbs.

Having said that, what are your thoughts. Have you done similar projects and do you have pictures of the jigs and results?

Sorry for the limited specs, but that's all I have.

Regards,

Drew
 
3 wheel rolling machine. bring it to a pro, because the metal is pricey to mess-up. miami has tons of tuna tower guys that will do it cheap. matt
 
With your friend being a woodworker he must have made bent lamination's using a jig...

He should try something like that but only make a jig maybe 30 or so degrees of the necessary circle (perimeter), and bend a bit at a time until the circle is complete...

I really cant think of anything easier to do at home.
 
Bending tubing is a black art.
I have been hand bending tubing and pipe with a Hossfeld bender for 30 years, and machine bending tubing and pipe with a 3 roll power bender for 10 or 12- and the hundreds of bends I have done put me at about the advanced apprentice stage in a real industrial situation.
Every machine is different, every material bends differently, and sometimes there are even big variations between mill runs from the same mill.


Thin wall is harder to bend than schedule 40 pipe, in some ways.

All of which is not to say that this guy might be incredibly lucky, and, by making stacked plywood bending dies, and then using extreme leverage, he might not be able to execute some credible bends. Not the first time, probably, and, getting full circles is extremely tricky, but he COULD do it.
Or, he could spend a couple of weeks of time just to ruin a few hundred bucks worth of aluminum.

Me, I would find a sympathetic shop with a 3 wheel angle rolling machine, and the right dies, and beg, cajole, and whine my way into a good price.
Unless you really want to embark on a lifelong career of tube bending. And, if thats your goal, figure a good hundred grand worth of equipment before you are done. And a few years of making mistakes, large and small.

I made a bunch of circles like this for my wife a few years ago, and even some "contact capsule" ellipse shapes- and found that I could roll entire circles in pipe, but was limited by the 20' available material length. So the larger ones, and the ellipses, I roll in halves, and weld together. Much easier to align and get flat two halves, than to flatten a 4' circle.

pics here-
Floatzones
these "floatzones" all have 1 1/2" schedule 40 aluminum pipe circles and ellipses for the base ring, which has plywood bolted to it, and then is suspended by cables.
 
I agree it could destroy a lot of tubing learning how, I freely admit I've only done it with small dia. short pieces of steel (usually solid)...

But when I need tubing bent up for car exhaust I'd rather pay someone...

Also I always forget how much materials cost nowadays (its just crazy).
 








 
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