Long sweeping bends on tubing; How?

I was thinking about bending thick walled tubing (Like for cages and frames etc..) couldn't figure out hou you would make long continuous bends in tubes. Can someone explain the way this is done or the best way? Do you heat them and bend them around a really big buck? Do you make a bunch of cuts?

Also what kind of tubing is better to work with, round or square/rectangular?

Thanks guys...

 

I have seen it done both ways. The buck-n-heat route seems to come out a lot cleaner.

 

when ever i need some bends in big tubing,i go over to this race car chassis shop,they have this big hydraulic bender with dies for each size tubing. there isn't a mandrel they pull through it to avoid collapsing the tube,like they do on those real smooth exhuast u-bends,but heavy wall seamless tubing usually doesn't kink.

if you are only looking for a couple bends,i'm sure you can find some chassis shop to do it

 

For very large rads,you could use something like this: Pyramid roller
The tighter the radius,and the heavier the material,
the more likely you need specialized equipment.
Cut/bend/weld/grind works on rectangle and square tubing,if you are only doing a couple.
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Also what kind of tubing is better to work with, round or square/rectangular?

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Depends on the application.Square and rect are easy to cut miters on.
Round tubing is easier to bend,for a given size and wall thickness.

 

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For very large rads,you could use something like this: Pyramid roller


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You can do something like this if you have a mill. Put a block with two rollers on the table and one in the chuck and feed the tube between them. This is how we made the big sweeping tube on the choppers.

 

you can cut the curve you want out of a thick sheet of plywood. then use that to bend the tubing around. that would be good for nice huge bends.


I saw on one of the Jesse James specials that he did this to form some frame parts for his personal chopper. looked like it worked pretty slick.

 

i have just made a banister rail for the stairs at my place out of 1 inch square and it has a very large curve to it

it was done by marking the tube every 6 inches puting it in my tube bender and giving it the slightest of bends on each mark then if it needed to be tighter it was passed through again giving the same amount at each mark

i'll try to get some pics posted saturday

UKAde

 

When John Youens ('DesignIt' on the HAMB) built Salsa Verde, he used the plywood buck method. The whole process is documented with pics here.

 

Nice work John!