Pipe Bending

[TOGGY]

I am in the process of installing a new bathroom. As Bath toilet etc are all being moved i am required to do a bit of replumbing. Enter my newly acquired pipe bender, having completed a few bends with no trouble at all (almost as satisfing as removing the old tiles with my sds sdrill). At random during bending the tube started kinking (15mm). There appears to be no pattern to this, i have tried going slow, fast etc. Most bends are at 90o. 1 particular tubes seems to be more susceptible than others.

Anybody any ideas as to what i am doing wrong.

TIA

Billy

[Peter Taylor]

Are you helping the pipe round with your hand? I tried this and it went kinky. You have to hold only the bender handles.

Peter

[andy.pevy]

Is it a single kink, or a series of little creases on the inside radius of the pipe ?.

If it is the creases, then try a little WD40 on the straight die part of the bender.

AndyP

[Andrew Gabriel]

Are the pipe bender formers the right size for the pipe?

One thought that occurs to me is the copper might be old (or been subjected to vibration) and has got itself work-hardened. Heating it with a blowlamp and letting it cool will soften (anneal) it again. You don't need to bend it while hot/warm.

[TOGGY]

Thanx for the relpies chaps. Only using both handles. It is one large kink although i am having some small creases on other bends will try the WD40 on the straight die.

Billy

[Peter Taylor]

What a good idea!

[Martin]

Are you using a pipe bending spring? If not, you should be.

[Tony Bryer]

Not with a pipe bender ....

Kinking used to be a problem with some continental-sourced tube but I've not had this problem in 20 years.

[Andy Hall]

Not necessary with a pipe bender. .andy

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[Ed Sirett]

IMHO a bending spring is a waste of time.

Is is important that the round dies adnd the straight dies are all firmly in place (but still with a slight possibility of movement). Also a bit of lubrication is helpful. The wheels are worth lubricating also.

[Lurch]

Could be cheap copper. Make sure the bender is clean, give both parts a good rub with wire wool.

SJW A.C.S. Ltd.

[Bob Minchin]

Some grades of copper pipe are not designed to be bent BS specs refer to table X and table Y pipes. One bends Ok the other does not. Unhelpfully I can't remember which is which but I did try bend the wrong sort once and had the problems you describe. Bob

[TOGGY]

Thanks for all your replies.

Have tried the wd40 trick just as a test but to no avail. How can i tell if the tube is table x or y? I bought it from the local William Wilson, which is always pretty busy, so i doubt if it would be lying around for all that long.

Thanks for all your help

[Andrew Gabriel]

It's sometimes faintly ink-jet printed or dot-matrix embossed into the surface of the tube. From memory, I think the table X tube has a 0.9mm copper thickness, sometimes written as

15x0.9 or some such. I've never used table Y tube.

What make pipe bender do you have? Not sure the answer will help much, unless it's something like Fisher Price ;-) Mine's a Record one from B&Q a few years ago. I noticed CPC had a special offer sometime before christmas for one something not much over £20 IIRC, which looked like a Record one but the picture was too small to be sure. That would make it half the price I paid for mine, albeit some years ago.

One other thought -- you do have the separate stright former pieces don't you? When I was looking in B&Q for one for someone else more recently, none of the boxes had those pieces in them. I could imagine people buying the pipe benders and assuming the roller is supposed to press directly on the pipe -- not sure what happens if you try doing it like that, but I imagine it will screw up one way or another :-)

[Andy Hall]

I have a Rothenberger one and it comes with dies for 15mm, 16mm and

22mm. If you use the 16mm one on 15mm tube it mangles it like this.

.andy

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[TOGGY]

Will have a good look at my pipe when i get home.

The pipe bender was my late father in laws. the make is rigid and is in good nick, dont know how old it is but doesnt appear much more than a year or so old, looking at its condition probably not even that.

No removable parts on the bender both dies are fixed and following all the advice hear, scrubbed clean and oiled.

[Andy Hall]

Is it possible that this originated from the U.S.? Ridgid is a brand sold by Home Depot.

If so, I wonder if it is an imperial size and the problem is that it simply is the wrong size for 15mm tube.

.andy

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[John]

On this subject, anybody know of a 'cheap' pipe bender that will only be used for the occasional DIY/friends job, it will be better than using lots of elbows etc>

TIA

John

[Dave Plowman]

They come up regularly on Ebay and seem to go for about 20 quid. Dunno how good they are - I've got a Record, and never had any problems with any tube.

[Pete C]

Toggy,

Putting a pipe bending spring inside will help stop it kinking.

Also try annealing the tube by heating it up and letting it cool slowly.

cheers, Pete.