Bending stainless steel tubing

When I built my house, copper pipe was very expensive so I resorted to stainless steel. I used a standard heavy duty pipe bender.
15mm pipe was easy, but 22mm was a bit harder to work - the material is less ductile that copper so there was quiet a bit of necking which I found unattractive.
Soldered joint were very challenging, though.

AFAIK there are no leaks 40 years later...
 
I have done this thousands of time,all you need is a top former try it with 16 swg tube and you shouldnt have any problems dont use thinner guage tube.I have bent up to 32mm it does take some effort
 
Hi Chris, can you be clear regarding the type of bender you used and what you mean by a "top former" please. The bender I have is one that effectively rolls a formed wheel over the top of a female radius former and is the type usually used by plumbers for copper pipe and conduit. Is this what you used?
 
the bender I used was an electricians bender you could try a hire shop if you want one for just a few days the top former is what the next poster ssaid ,you might have to buy that ,if you are near Falmouth I could give you a hand to bend it
 
Thanks Chris. I am often encouraged by the generosity exhibited by some forumites but I am in Lee-on-Solent which is a bit far from Falmouth.... Thanks Mate anyway, much appreciated. I thought that the usual "plumbers" type bender had a roller which forced the pipe down into the female former below. Does the top former go between this roller and the tube then or what?
 
as you said it goes on top of the tube below the roller.As I was bending lots of tube I turned a parallel roller in place of the shaped one.how much tube do you need to bend?????
 
parsifal said:
I don't know what size tubingyou want to bend but might this do?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Clarke-St..._Metalworking_Supplies_ET&hash=item19e49c1c2b

The seller would be willing to deliver it to Lee-on-Solent, f.o.c.

You can always sell these things on when you're done with it.
Click to expand...

OK you have my attention. How do you know the seller will deliver FOC to L-O-S? Is it you? :-)

I have looked at this type of bender rather than the roller type but I have the fear that with 32mm tube it might kink it rather than achieve a clean bend. I would prefer to use 30 or 32mm but am considering that 25mm might be sufficient.
 
OK Chris, understood, I guess if the top former is free and not restrained by the pipe stop it will roll around the curve, tangential to it without bending itself. I have never used one like this but it sounds like a good idea. Have you ever tried the hydraulic ram type like Parsifal suggests? My feeling is that it is more likely to kink the pipe than the roller type. What think you?
 
I've used the hydraulic type on steel tube for fire escape handrails and they work very well on that gauge of material. As for 1.5mm- 2mm wall stainless, I'm not so sure. Do you have a length to test with? If so, nip down to the local tool hire shop and ask them to try it out on the grounds you're considering hiring one.
 
The ebay one will definitely kink SS tube. You need tight fitting mandrels which encase the tube.
I borrowed a very good hydraulic bender to do some slight curves in a tiller in 1.5" SS tube. I had to keep shifting the tube around the mandrel curve to avoid too much stress in any one area.
Take it to a fabrication workshop. Pay the man on the understanding he is not to kink it.
 
Lakesailor said:
The ebay one will definitely kink SS tube. You need tight fitting mandrels which encase the tube.
I borrowed a very good hydraulic bender to do some slight curves in a tiller in 1.5" SS tube. I had to keep shifting the tube around the mandrel curve to avoid too much stress in any one area.
Take it to a fabrication workshop. Pay the man on the understanding he is not to kink it.
Click to expand...
Precisely! I tried a few years ago using a plumber's type - former and rolling mandrel and managed to split the former from ass hole to breakfast time. The mechanics of forming the bend require the outer fibres of the pipe/tube to stretch (yield), this in turn causes the pipe/tube to try to go elliptical, this is prevented by the former however the forces required to restrain the lateral expansion of the pipe/tube are very high and unless you are using steel formers which are tight fitting to the op of the pipe/tube you will either split teh aluminium former (OK for copper tube as yield stress is much lower then that of SS) or the pipe/tube will tend to go elliptical and kink (ripple). Forget the plumber's type handi bender for SS - either use the hydraulic former or as LS says "Take it to a fabrication workshop. Pay the man on the understanding he is not to kink it."
 
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