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Old 02-14-2013, 11:07 AM
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Frank.de.Kleuver Frank.de.Kleuver is offline
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Default Old school pipe bender - the early days

Hi guys,

What type of pipe bender or bending technique would have been used in the early days like the ac bristols/cobra or ferraries?

I've been pixel peeping a lot of old factory photo's but never figured that out. Is it possible to bend a pipe over a wooden plug just by heating it?

The pipes I'm talking about are for example the ones used for doors and body support like in this picture.

image.jpg

Kind regards,

Frank
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Old 02-14-2013, 12:22 PM
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I've heard of a method called sand bending, where the tube is filled with sand and capped at both ends, then heated at the bend with a torch and bent around something like you said. Never tried it but the sand is supposed to keep the tube from collapsing at the bend.I don't know if it could be used for that part, but it's definetly old school...
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Old 02-14-2013, 12:58 PM
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I had the good fortune to work for an old craftsmen 30-40 years ago; Nic Nicol. He was in his late eighties. Specialized tools were pretty much unavailable then. Today it seems a friend or someone has the special tool and is willing to help. Back then people helped one another but all they had to offer was ingenuity.

If we needed to bend some tubing, he would send me out to scrounge up some hardwood of the same thickness. Then I would bandsaw a part of a circle of a slightly smaller radius than the finished bend we needed. This was to allow for springback. Nic always knew how much to allow...experience I'd quess. We would sandwich the radius piece between two pieces of plywood which were cut to the radius plus tube diameter. This resulted in a flat bottomed segment of a wheel. Then we carefully pulled the tube around the form. It worked fairly well; the occaisional tube collapse was cause for an unmentionable exclamation followed by a coffee break to develop a new course of action.

With some patience and forethought we got done what was necessary. We did fill with dry sand once in a while and that worked well too. We still used the wood form to bend around.

I have fond memories of those days. We enjoyed the challenges.
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Old 02-14-2013, 01:06 PM
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Another method Nic showed me was to use an electrician's bending hickey.





This tool is just a short section of a bending shoe thay you move along the bend a short distance each time. The advantage of this tool is if the door frame, for instance is just a bit off, one could put the hickey in the section and "tweak" or adjust the bend as needed.

This would be a simple tool to make for youself. Just use a couple of split pieces of pipe. The teeth are not needed. Make the thing a couple inches long and grind out the ends to a soft radius...this prevents the hickey from making a mark that could start a kink.
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Last edited by Richard K; 02-14-2013 at 01:11 PM.
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Old 02-14-2013, 01:10 PM
Janne Janne is offline
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I just remembered I have this on computer.....

sandp62.jpg

sandp63.jpg

sandp64.jpg

sandp66.jpg
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Old 02-14-2013, 01:18 PM
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Make sure you use dry sand!

Otherwise. the heat turns the moisture into steam and if you have plugged the ends well.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,The steam pressure needs to go somewhere and it is VERY powerful! Water expands by 1600 times as it turns to steam. That's why locomotives could pull a train.
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Old 02-14-2013, 02:03 PM
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"Water expands by 1600 times as it turns to steam. That's why locomotives could pull a train".

correct me if i`m wrong, it is the latent heat of evaporization, the 970 BTU`s of heat ENERGY [per pound of water at sea level]that are released when steam condenses, that drives the locomotive. yes/no.
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Old 02-14-2013, 02:44 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tom walker View Post
"Water expands by 1600 times as it turns to steam. That's why locomotives could pull a train".

correct me if i`m wrong, it is the latent heat of evaporization, the 970 BTU`s of heat ENERGY [per pound of water at sea level]that are released when steam condenses, that drives the locomotive. yes/no.
Could Be? When I was a kid they just dumped in lots of water, steam came out everywhere, the whistle blew and the train pulled out of town.

(there was also lots of bent pipe on those locomotives)
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Old 02-14-2013, 02:49 PM
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That are the stories I was looking for. I really like the idea of the bending hickey and just using pieces of hard wood. Sand could be useful when the pipe keeps collapsing with the first methods. Maybe a combination of the wood and the hickey is an idea.

Looking at the pictures, sand will work good also but if you're beeing creative, the playing around with sand and endcaps could be a bit cumbersome.

I like the old school no-nonsense approach.

Kind regards,

Frank
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Old 02-14-2013, 04:37 PM
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One place my dad used to work did a lot of bending of pipe.

They used to fill the pipe with a low melting point alloy before bending and used to finish off by hammering ball bearings thtough the pipe to remove any small kinks.
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