Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Ive decided to attempt some aluminum tube bending however Ive never done it before and Id like to know how to go about doing such with basic home tools. How is this done?

I have no machinery or tools to do so as of yet. The diameter is only 12 to 25 millimeters so nothing real heavy. What tools can be used?

Id like to attempt to make a nice roof rack for our tear this why the question.

Classic Finn

G'Day Heikki

You'll need some sort of insert, maybe a coil type spring to fit inside the pipe and a gas torch of some sort. Fit the spring in the area you want to bend, apply enough heat to soften the ally and bend it to your required shape. Softening the aluminium is also called annealing. It's easy, really.

Cheers
Paul

PS Plumbers used to use a flexible, stainless steel thingy to fit inside copper tubing when they needed to bend it BUT that was when I was a lad

PaulC wrote:G'Day Heikki

You'll need some sort of insert, maybe a coil type spring to fit inside the pipe and a gas torch of some sort. Fit the spring in the area you want to bend, apply enough heat to soften the ally and bend it to your required shape. Softening the aluminium is also called annealing. It's easy, really.

Cheers
Paul

PS Plumbers used to use a flexible, stainless steel thingy to fit inside copper tubing when they needed to bend it BUT that was when I was a lad

G"Day Paul How be it Down Under?

I found some real nice tubing here at our German Building Supply and thought to attempt some wintertime doing at home.

Will the typical hand bending tool work for this? It costs about 20 Euro at Bauhaus. Not very expensive.

http://landscaping.about.com/od/waterga ... tain_5.htm Is the external one.

http://www.diydata.com/techniques/plumb ... .php#tools is the internal one.

It should work. Once aluminium(Oz spelling) is soft it should be similar to annealed copper.

Cheers
Paul

Hello Heikki,

If you don't want to buy tools, you can cut some plywood to make forms for the tubing.

Cut the radius you need from plywood, then attach the cut pieces to a sheet of plywood, or your workbench.

Fill the tubing with dry sand, then heat with a torch and slowly wrap the tube around the form.

Cut the desired bend fron the length, and bend another...

Rob

I think if I was going to do it at home, I'd make a form with a piece of wood with the radius on the bend I want, then put a piece of wood on either side, larger than the form. That would keep the tubing from slipping off the form. The sand is also a great idea I had not thought of.. it would help keep the tubing from kinking. Heating is also a good idea....

oh, and I'd put the whole thing in a vice to keep it from slipping around.

Do some experimenting and let us know how it goes...

Would a conduit bender work? They are made to bend electrical conduit and they are relatively cheap.

Here a conduit bender would work for the larger tubing (25mm/1 inch) and they make tubing benders for the smaller size (12mm / 1/2 inch).

Another trick that I've heard of is to fill the tubing with sand, plug the ends (crimp or weld) and that will help keep the tubing from kinking while you bend it. Conduit bender would be my first choice though. If not filled from the inside you need to support the side walls of the tubing to keep it from kinking. The benders will do this. Or if you make jigs of your own you could route grooves in the internal form and the movable die to do it. Look at tubing benders on the net and copy their design.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Gus

I used to be a A/C and heating helper.......way back. Darn I'm getting old. Anyway we bent our copper tubing with a spring tool that went on the OUTSIDE of the tubing. It just slipped off when we had the bend. Also check you local awning shop. They use alot of aluminum tubing and have to make bends. Might be able to get it done for a little conversation. Good luck and happy building. Let us know how it turns out.

you all are doing it all wrong!!!!! Try this

TerryLawson wrote:you all are doing it all wrong!!!!! Try this

For those of you that have built your own luggage or carrier rack what diameter piping or tubing have you used?

Classic Finn

I used 1/2 inch copper tubing.

Rob

WOW..you guys sure depend on some type of spring to bend tubing..
listen to me...use the sand inside method..don't heat it, just make sure the sand is packed in good and can't get out. then use your head like the pic shows..

I used 3/4 electrical conduit.