Tube bending job shop---10 inch thin wall

Can someone help me find a short run jobber that is capable of bending up to 10 inch, thin wall, tight radii tubing. I have literally spent weeks looking online and calling jobbers. I have tried Thomas Register with no luck. I did find one in OH (HP Products), but they were already overcommited and were not interested. I can't afford to buy a $100,000 machine for this. Any help would be appreciated.

Crazy
10" steam pipe is done all the time, but you said you want "thin wall".

I know Woolf Aircraft does big tube bending with a flex mandrel inside.
http://www.woolfaircraft.com/
http://www.woolfaircraft.com/benddie.pdf
The die list claims at least 7"

Howsomeever me thinks you are not thinking about the stretch required to to 10" "thinwall" on any kind of close radius.

You can fake one up by doing segments and a bit of careful set-up tig welding.

Gas flow stuff is common with two ends and three segments.
Take that up to six or seven segments and you can make it appear smooth with a bit of bondough.
Six or seven segments will have a very good discharge coefficient too as long as you keep the peedunckles trimmed and smooth.
Hmmm come to think about it, at ten inch you can weld from the inside.

Perhaps Woolf knows of some outlaw truck exhaust outfit that might do it.

Hth Ag

A lot depends on what your idea of "thin wall" and "tight radius" is.
Some things are impossible, some things are just damn hard.

I did a job a few years ago where I needed large diameter thin wall stuff bent- my definitions being 8" to 10", 1/8" wall, but my radiuses werent too tight.

Anyway I found these guys-
http://www.millerberndmfg.com/
And they make streetlight poles- so they have a bending system using slices of internal mandrel, strung together on a wire, that enables them to bend relatively thin wall, relatively large diameter stuff.

My particular application required them to make and bend tapered curved tubing, which tapered from something like 10" down to 6" over 12 feet- cant remember all the details now, only have so much storage space in the old noggin- but it was a pretty tricky bend, and they did it.

Be forewarned, though, that on 10" tubing, especially in wall thicknesses of 1/8", you are gonna get some wrinkling in the inside of the bend on radiuses less than 4 or 5 times the tube diameter. The metal has to go somewhere.

If you give us more info, about actual wall thicknesses, alloy, radius, etc, I or others might be able to be a bit more helpful.

Are you sure this is even possible? Have you seen a reasonably priced commercial product that does this? Not a space shuttle part made from Unobtainium, that took 3 years and $5 million to make under government contract?

are we talking square tube or round,
and what is the application?

Actually I would like to try square tubing as well as round but at least round.

I am talking about 0.112 wall carbon steel. The radius would be about 3x dia.

Yes, there are jobbers that do this. I spoke with Mark w/HP Products and they have the capability but too busy.

The tube bending machinery to do this is priced around $100,000 without the tooling--too much for me.

I will check with the two contacts listed. Thanks guys.

square tube would be probably just as easy to fabricate unless you are doing large quantity.
round tube I would first look for a suitable weld elbow,
depending on application.

agrip,
Thanks, already tried Woolf. They can't do it.
Almost everyone can go up to 6 or 7 inch, but 10 inch is a challenge.

How many pieces?

Have you considered stamping halves & welding them together? That also has the benefit of being able to do irregular cross-sections, like Ries job.

Racer -
what would be involved in getting something like that stamped?
would you look to stamping for small qty or only for producion?
-pm

A short run stamping could be done on Kirtsite dies. The material (zinc) is pricy, but can be reclaimed. Might be iffy on 1/8 wall, I never did anything that thick.

so someone would have to make a pattern and cast a male and female die? how big of a press would be needed?

There is a place that used to be in Burlington NJ called Custom Manufacturing. I've seen them bend 8" dia. aluminum tubing on a VERY tight radius with no detectible distortion. Not cheap but looks great. They make custom tools for jobs like that. I had loads of stuff bent for displays that was just awesome. Look them up and if they are not in Burlington then check in Phila PA, they may have moved.
Bill

Tulsa Tube Bending 918-446-4461 ttb.com

This is where I work. We should have the tooling to make your bends. If you do we should be able to ship it in 7 to 10 days. I work in the maintenance department, but the benders take pride in making good smooth bends with no wrikles. This is hard with thin wall tubing.

When you call you will get a person on the line and not a machine. We also double check our orders to make sure every thing is right before it is shipped. We are running right now at about 99% on time deliveries an 99% no customer complaints.

I may sound like a salesman but I am proud of what we do there and they treat us pretty good.

Tell the that Floyd (my real name) sent you.

Ernie

I'm slow, but I just checked our die list and 50" is the tightest radi that we bend on 10" tubbing.

Ernie