Sand-bending Exhaust Tube

That is Neeeeto.
I surfed the site and these header "legos" cost $1,250 for an 8 cyl.

what would you use to bend some thing like this

 

thanks

 

That is clever on a Huth. Never thought of that.

 

wow, there are quite a few different radii on that thing!

 

Nice! Thanks for the info.

Sounds like you have had good results with sand bending. Do you have a pic of exhaust you sand bent?

 

Doesn't look so forgotten here. I work in the exhaust industry and this is how we bend a lot of our prototype systems before we invest thousands in special dies for the benders. It is all stainless and all up to 2.0 mm thick (.080"). The finer the sand, the finer the pack. We don't use water or ice but have thought about it. We use everything from steel shot to silica sand. Fine steel shot works great but if you are going for a polished finish, it isn't recommended. Too many marks left behind.

I like the newspaper idea, I'll suggest that to the bender guy at work and see what he says. He usually greases them up like a good Saturday night at the farm.

 

I've often wondered if Kaolin (kitty litter) would work better than sand, I helped set up a processing plant once and the fine dust was deep underfoot but you didn't sink walking on it like sands so I expect it would require little tamping.

 

We've been using plastic bags cut up in strips as our lubricant for years, you can reuse the stuff 'til its falling apart, and it doesn't junk up your machine with dripping oil, ours looks nice after literally thousands of bends.

 

The expanding foam is a good idea. I'll try it this weekend.

 

Yes, I--KNOW! so how would you do it?

 

There are like 6 or 7 different radii. I'm not sure how that was built.

Someone with a roll bender, a rotary draw bender and a ton of dies, or someone sand bending?

 

After reading about sand bending on here I had the itch to try it on something. Decided to make a gooseneck for an antique looking light I wanted to put up over one of the vaccuum cleaners at my carwash.

What I liked was that I could do a variable radius bend with it by varying the heat and how hard I pulled on the tube. Started out tight and then went to a big loopy bend. Turned out way better than I imagined it would.

No expert from that one piece, but I'm sure gonna try some artsy multiple bend, multiple radius pieces when I get a little time.

Other than waiting for the material to cool down, I'm not sure it'll be that much slower than using a bender like my JD*.

 

This seems easy ---

 

Sand Bent Exhaust Headers

Sounds like FUN!

 

Most ANY good Japanese manufactured titanium motorcycle exhaust system will be hand bent using the sand method.

 

Once a welder - Always a welder

My dear Mother is a welder.

"Miss Katie" helped build "Liberty Ships".

She showed me how to weld when I was 15.

 

Did it flatten the tube aroung the bends?

 

Ok - after seeing the TI pictures I'm going to have to try again - When welding TI - if you lose ANY shieldeing gas your screwed - it turns to mud.

I know TI loose's a great deal of strengh when heated - but I did not know you could get that much shape with out destroying the alloy.

Kick Ass....!!!!

Many moons ago I was doing this with mild steel & getting ( just ok ) results.

I try'd 3.0 x .065 304 SS & Had crappy results.

Now that I'm more season'd - going to try some more.

 

LOL

 

Hey Rich,

I saw this on your website. Do you have a bender with tons of dies or what? I see quite a few radii on this frame. Or is there a little roll bending or Sand bending?

 

My experience is that it will kink a little bit. I guess I'm just not good enough at it.

 

Hey Shane,

No sand bends on any of my tube chassis 32's.

All the sand stuff I did was for bikes, exaust & art. ( going to try again with sand soon )

The long sweeper bends on the main rails were done in a H.D. - 3 Wheel Roll bender I designed & built - I could find roller benders that could bend the tube die & wall I wanted - but none of them could ( creep up ) on the shapes I wanted to make acuratlly enought - had to build the die's for that one too.

There are pictures of in in the shop tour album I think.

Yup - the die rack is pretty full.

 

I looked and couldn't find it. I'd love some info, I need to build one too. Pretty please?

BTW, Awesome work!!!!!

 

Here ya go,

 

Tubing for sale on Craigs list for Chicago area guy's.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwi/mat/1066225625.html

Rich

 

Rich!

Wow! You built that yourself? Right on.

The belts provide enough traction without slipping?

 

Rich, drawings would be awesome...wink, wink...nudge, nudge.

 

Yes, just as nice as the rest of your work!



The DRO is a nice touch. How large diameter/wall thickness do you bend in this? Do you do it in one pass or several? Sorta looks like a lot of heavy cranking on that lever if you have to make several passes.

Thank You!

 

Thanks For comps – always nice to here.<O</O
<O</O

here's a few more pics<O</O
<O</O