Better Benders

[Deleted]

Looking at 70008 again I thought I'd better bring my pipe bender out of retirement in anticipation of some serious work! Other people have coveted it so I thought I'd share it with the forum.

I made this some years ago, having tried small commercial benders and not being too impressed with them. This one will bend 6mm solid bar double, cold. It will also bend any size you like if you care to make a simple former for it. It is a smaller version, and I think an improved one, of something the Romans built. I hope the pictures are self explanatory, but the column is 10mm dia., and the bending mechanism is free to slide up and down, thus accommodating any diameter tube or bar. The swivel on the arm is positioned up against the pipe and locked with the allen key.





The eccentric has two positions, thus I can make bends up to one inch radius. If I drilled another hole I suppose I could make bigger ones! The nice part is that I can lay the pipe flat on the base, thus keeping this nice and square, and I can sketch the shape on the base plate.


Formers are quick and easy to make, I have several!

[russell]

Looks to be a nice design - must make something like it.

Do you find a problem with the eccentric stopping the moving roller getting close enough when starting a bend?

Regards,
Russell.

[Deleted]

Hi Russell, there's no problem with it as the column base clears the top of the eccentric. You could replace the eccentric with a slotted bar which you could place against the static part of the tube: this would ensure that you started at a right angle. I made the eccentric because I was feeling idle!
JB

[dscott]

Please add a 'bender' to my list of projects, I have just done a drawing during my tea break on an A 5 envelope as you do.

Thank you for posting such a lovely solution. Some hard plastics pvc etc could be used for softer copper tube.

David.

[NarrowGauge]

That looks a 'proper job' JB.

Will file away for future use.

Thanks

Dave.