My version of George's tubing bender

[joe d]

Hi

I need a tubing bender for the exhaust, fuel, and coolant pipes on the Snow tandem that I'm building, so I got busy and made one according to the plans drawn up by George Britnell.

Started by turning some drill rod to the diameter of the tube, (four times, as I've got four different sizes of tubing to deal with) then used a ball turning device to form the radius on the end of the pieces, then to the mill to remove half of the material

hardened, and a lick on the grinder, and then into a purpose-built tool holder, and here's one cutting a forming die

Here's all the bits assembled and ready to go

And here's the set of dies, the bender, and a test piece

This thing works a treat, thanks George! Great design work.

No more excuses, will be getting back to the Snow now....

Cheers, Joe

 

[Blogwitch]

Very nice work Joe.

Not to detract from this post, but to add to it where it might enable more people to have a go at making one.

For those people who don't have the confidence to grind the tools and cut those grooves on the lathe, if you have a mill and RT, you can make grooves to fit almost any size very easily. It is only limited by the size of cutters you have in your arsenal.

I find that you can get a better cut the more flutes you have on your cutter, but even a two flute will produce acceptable results. You just need to take a steadier and less depth of cut each time.

I cut all the grooves for my bender using this method, and the tubes fit perfectly. The method has also been used by other people and they found the results commendable.

Bogs

 

[shred]

Lacking an RT or tool-grinding skills at the time, I once turned a concavity like this by putting a bit of drill rod cut off square in my lathe QCTP and running it way way down so the bottom of the workpiece became the cutting area, rather than the side as normal. You can only 'infeed' by loosening and re-tightening the QCTP adjuster, and it works better with relief and such on the tool, but it works in a pinch.

 

[tel]

Nice winkle there Bogster - I'll have to try that one, and, by a great stroke of good fortune I have a bunch of cord pulleys to make in the near future.

 

[gbritnell]

Very nice work Joe, I'm glad it worked out well for you. The bend in the tubing looks great.
George

 

[Paolo]

As You know I did mine some times ago and I suggested some correction to the project...and I'm happy with it!! Nice project!!
Paolo