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Com_VC
11-30-2007, 08:29 PM
Hi,

I've got some 76mm OD, 70 ID 3mm thickness aluminium pipe that I need to bend. Would it be ok to sand fill the pipe and then use a pipe bender? I've done this before with mild steel and it has worked quite well, just wondering how aluminium would go? I'd like it not to crush.

Thanks
Rocky D
11-30-2007, 08:53 PM
There is a special sand you can get for bending pipe...and the pipe must be in the "0" condition to bend....anything else will break. Not having done it, I can't tell you what the sand is, or the idiosyncrasies of it.
2manyprojects
12-01-2007, 04:47 PM
I just rolled 50 ft of 5/8" copper packed with med. silica from Home Depot around a 5" fence post to replace a solar heat exchanger. It ended up more true than the original coil. I had never tried it before but it worked great. It was a 3 layer coil 10 wraps on each layer. Tubing stayed as round as it was to begin with!
Noisy Nova
12-01-2007, 05:07 PM
I just rolled 50 ft of 5/8" copper packed with med. silica from Home Depot around a 5" fence post to replace a solar heat exchanger. It ended up more true than the original coil. I had never tried it before but it worked great. It was a 3 layer coil 10 wraps on each layer. Tubing stayed as round as it was to begin with!

Any pics of the coil?
2manyprojects
12-01-2007, 05:57 PM
Yes, but I don't know how to post...
2manyprojects
12-01-2007, 06:15 PM
here it is
Noisy Nova
12-01-2007, 06:32 PM
Awesome, looks good.
Rocky D
12-01-2007, 07:05 PM
Hi,

I've got some 76mm OD, 70 ID 3mm thickness aluminium pipe that I need to bend. Would it be ok to sand fill the pipe and then use a pipe bender? I've done this before with mild steel and it has worked quite well, just wondering how aluminium would go? I'd like it not to crush.

Thanks

To translate, you have 3" OD tubing (tubing is measured by OD) with a 1/8" almost wall thickness....as I mentioned before it must be in the "0" condition, and the radius of the bend will have great bearing on the amount of crushing.
The example of copper, here doesn't really carry over to Aluminum. I do believe, as an alternative to bending, you can purchase elbows and stuff pre-bent to weld in...but you haven't said what you are bending it for. What radius are we talking about? What's it for?