Bending stainless steel

[Slow_boat]

I intend to make a gentry or some sort of frame to support a cockpit tent. Can I bend stainless tube with a plumbers pipe bender of is it to hard?

If not, how do I do it?

 

[Stemar]

Made a new frame for my sprayhood by making a template from wood and bending the pipe round it. It worked OK, but wasn't perfect.

A bending spring will probably work OK, but only near the end of the pipe, and you might struggle to get it out. Why not rent a proper pipe bender from a tool hire place? It won't cost a lot compared with the cost of buggering up a length of SS!

 

[FullCircle]

I intend to make a gentry or some sort of frame to support a cockpit tent. Can I bend stainless tube with a plumbers pipe bender of is it to hard?

If not, how do I do it?

316 Stainless work hardens on bending and is not very malleable to begin with, so tough, which is why it works so well on pushpits!

You can do it with a Record floor standing pipe bender and spring, but you will need an extension handle. You can hire one from Mark1 in Rochford.

Preferably go for a hand hydraulic unit though - much much easier.

I used to bend 2 inch pipe with 3/16 wall for railway carriage brake pipes with a small hydraulic unit.

 

[Heckler]

I intend to make a gentry or some sort of frame to support a cockpit tent. Can I bend stainless tube with a plumbers pipe bender of is it to hard?

If not, how do I do it?

Have been puzzling over the same thing myself, then thought about the piles of scrap eberspacher SS exhausts in my garage, the ex BT ones come with a couple of meters of bended 25mm pipes each.
I have cut the right angles and 110 deg bends out and now have a pile of them ready to start experimenting with joining slugs OR welding them. If any one wants some to do the same come to sunny Llangollen or Pwllheli!
Stu

 

[CET1]

Bent our canopy frame with wooden template and rachet straps. filled toube with dry sand to prevent crimpping. For tighter radiuses we used mechanical pipe bender from HSS which worked a treat. All in all it worked out at a fraction of what we were quoted.

 

[DownWest]

I made a pulpit pushpit set up bending the pipe round a pulley I found at the scrappy. 25mm tube. No sand or springs and no noticable deformation of the tube. Use some tough glass filled body filler in the groove with a bit of pipe as a mould. Radius of the pulley was about 120mm. Slip a larger pipe over the ss and slide it out as you bend, keeping it just clear of the pulley. Needs fixing down well to the bench and some force. I would have rented an hydraulic bender, but was in southern Iberia and I doubt there was one anywhere close back then.
A
Exaust fitters usually have benders, you might look there.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Pipe Fabricators and Motor Bike Custom Exhaust Makers Bend Tubes

Buy a copy of "Classic Bike" or "Back Street Heros". In the Ads at the back there are a few custom exhaust makers that can bend tubes into complicated curves if that was desired. If the tube needs to be cut and shaped in a special way they can do that without any visible seam or loss of wall thickness showing on the outside.

These guys may be too expensive for a simple 2 dimension bend though.

Any fabrication company that specialises in pipe fitting will be able to bend your tubes. A small job like yours may just be a quick cash in hand job.

As others have stated the tube benders can be hired for home use.

 

[Slow_boat]

Thanks, all.

With the replies to this thread and the 'Gantry' thread on the PBO site, I think I'll have a go at this over winter!