At the last project, after I finished the main work, the customer contacted me with another order - it was necessary to make a special decorative product from corners and metal pipes that would need to be bent. He added that he had been looking for a master for a long time to do this, but he couldn’t find one, so I decided to find out if I could do it. I decided that I should talk about how to properly bend metal pipes, which I will do next.
Source stroy-podskazka.ru
When bending a metal pipe, the main thing you need to strive for is not to break or flatten it. Also, the pipe can change in diameter when bent, this will negatively affect any pipeline system.
Bend a metal pipe at home
Before bending any metal pipe, the following procedure must be carried out:
- Fill the pipe section to capacity with fine sand.
- Next you need to plug the ends of the pipe. Use two homemade wooden chopsticks for this. Also be careful not to push them in too deep, otherwise they will be difficult to remove and you will have to burn out the plugs.
- After this preliminary preparation, you can bend the pipe without fear that it will break or become deformed.
If you perform bending in winter, you can replace the sand with ordinary water.
The tube is filled with water, which freezes after a while, and choppers are driven into the ends of the tube. Then you can bend it, and after that the pipe is defrosted, the choppers are taken out, and the water is drained.
Source ytimg.com
Sheet metal rollers or roller bender
This type of sheet bending machine can have three types of drive:
They make rollers for sheet metal with manual or electric drive with their own hands. Manual ones have 3 shafts, electric ones can have 3-4, but usually there are also three.
This machine needs a good solid foundation. This could be a separate bed or some kind of workbench or table. The basis of the structure is rolls. They are made the same size. The two lower ones are installed permanently, the upper one is movable, so that in the lower position it is located between the rollers. By changing the distance between the lower rollers and the upper one, the radius of curvature changes.
The machine is set in motion using a handle attached to one of the shafts. Then the torque is transmitted to other rollers through sprockets. They are selected so that the rotation speed is the same.
If the equipment is intended to produce pipes, the upper roller on one side is made removable, with a quick fixation system. Once the sheet is rolled into a pipe, there is no other way to pull it out.
Tin corners are used to cover corners both inside and outside the house,
in the household, to strengthen shelves, corners of drawers, and so on.
We bend steel and aluminum products
When bending products made of steel or aluminum, you will still need to carry out a preliminary procedure. However, after you fill it with sand, you need to secure one of the ends of the pipe, and heat the place where you plan to bend it evenly. For this you can use:
- Propane torch;
- Blowtorch;
- Gas welding;
You can find out that the pipe is already sufficiently heated using the following methods:
- For aluminum: bring a piece of paper to the heating area, if it lights up or smokes, then the desired temperature has been reached
- For steel: its color will become deep red
It is important! When bending a pipe, take your time, and work only in overalls!
Source teplica-exp.ru
The principle of using a pipe bender
It is not always possible to bend a profile pipe (especially for large-diameter products) with your own hands. For these purposes, there are special devices - pipe benders. A standard pipe bender is equipped with a drive wheel, which, moving along one of the edges, carefully bends the pipe section in the required direction.
There are two types of pipe benders:
- Manual. The wheel of the device is operated manually using a special handle. Well suited for pipes with a small cross-sectional area.
- Electrical. The use of such devices is justified in cases where the volume of work is quite large, and the pipes themselves have substantial dimensions. The device is connected to a standard power supply, and the wheel moves by means of an electric drive. Allows you to obtain smoother products with significant time savings.
If the work is one-time, purchasing your own pipe bender may not be profitable. In this case, you should consider renting the device, or consider one of the alternative bending methods.
Notch method
Previously, we looked at hot methods of bending metal pipes. When using them, a protruding fold may appear at the bend. Therefore, next I will talk about one more labor-intensive, but sometimes very justified method - the notch method for bending metal pipes.
It is necessary to make cuts for bending the pipe in several places and in depth up to half of the pipe itself. The distance between the cuts depends on how much bending is needed, as well as on the diameter of the pipe itself.
If the diameter is small, then the thickness of the cut will be sufficient to obtain a smooth bend. Also keep in mind that the more cuts, the more accurate the bend will be. To bend pipes with a large diameter, several small wedges should be cut.
Source prom.st
The second method is usually used in decorative structures.
Before bending the pipe through which the liquid will move, it is necessary to clean the weld seam and grind it with a grinder, and carefully weld all the cuts. After painting, such a product will take on a decorative appearance without any traces of deformation.
Keep in mind that after bending by cutting, the inner surface of your pipe will remain rough and with sharp protrusions. This means that rust will settle here and various debris will linger. For heating and plumbing, this is a clear disadvantage of the incision method.
Corner bending methods
Several basic methods are used to obtain structures of a given shape and profile from a metal corner, namely:
- cold bending,
- hot bending,
- shaping by cutting, bending and welding the finished product.
Cold bending of a metal corner, in turn, is divided into:
- free bending is when the corner is bent without the use of special equipment;
- bending using a rolling mechanism on a specialized profile bending machine.
The use of cold bending of a metal corner, unlike other methods, has certain advantages, namely:
- this is the least expensive method of giving metal a given shape, and does not require the use of additional equipment for heating, cutting, welding and subsequent processing of the metal;
- the resulting frame has greater strength, since it eliminates possible defects characteristic of heating, cutting and welding;
- finished structures are guaranteed to last longer due to the fact that the integrity of the metal profile structure is preserved during processing;
- the likelihood of metal corrosion occurring over time is reduced.
How to bend a stainless and galvanized pipe at home
First of all, it is necessary to immediately say that products made of stainless steel, and especially galvanized ones, cannot be heated, as this can lead to their deformation. Products made from these materials are deformed only in a cold way.
As with all metal pipes, you must first carry out a preliminary procedure before bending the pipe in order to use the internal limiter (fill in sand, put in choppers).
Next, for bending, you should use a crossbow-type pipe bender. If it is not there, then the edge of the product must be clamped in a vice, and force must be applied to the second edge.
The only disadvantage of this method is that it can be difficult to make the pipe bend exactly in the place you need and take the required shape.
At home, you can bend a stainless steel pipe with a diameter of up to 4 cm and a wall thickness of up to 3 mm. If these indicators are higher, then you will have to use professional equipment.
Source ytimg.com
Paper with a folded corner. Free brushes
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How to bend a profile pipe at home
Profiled product
Next I will talk about how to bend a square profile pipe at home. You can use the cutting method to give the desired shape to rectangular pipes.
To do this, make several cuts with a grinder to the opposite side of the product, fix one of the ends of the pipe, bend the product, and then weld the cuts made.
Hot method
The first step is to insert a bundle of thin wires one at a time. Next, you need to secure the ends of the pipe, and heat the bend with a blowtorch or any other heating device. After this, the bending itself is performed.
The peculiarity of pipes with a square cross-section is that they “resist” to the last, and then bend extremely sharply at an acute angle in one place. Take this into account when bending profile pipes.
It is extremely difficult to obtain a smooth bend, so you should definitely make a blank (a special template) and bend it along it.
Before bending, profile products need to be heated only on the outside so that it stretches. Otherwise, folds that will greatly narrow the lumen may form on the inside. For the same reasons, a segment-type pipe bender is used.
How to bend a profile pipe using welding
Tubular products of rectangular or square cross-section, whose wall height can be 3-4 cm or more, are extremely difficult to bend, especially with small radii. Therefore, in order to form a beautiful 90-degree bend from such material with your own hands, you cannot do without a welding machine and an angle grinder.
Source glawtruba.ru
Procedure:
- First you need to make a bending template (it will be easier to make several identical parts using it).
- Make notches along the pipe on three sides, leaving one undamaged, using a grinder. Keep in mind that the roundness of the future bend will depend on the number of notches - the more there are, the rounder the bend.
- Securely fix one end of the pipe.
- Holding the second end, apply force on it in order to gradually bend the profile product according to the template so that the concave part of the bend is formed from the cuts. The bending plane should not be disturbed; you can use a mallet.
- The last step is to simply weld the cuts and sand the weld areas.
I recommend the following video, in which the author explains and shows how to correctly bend the corners for an arch:
At 90 degrees
Almost all buildings have a rectangular shape, so the most common action with corners is the need to bend them at 90 degrees.
Bend the corners 90 degrees for the future frame is quite simple. First you need to make a development in the place of the future fold. To do this, mark two corners on one of the shelves in different directions from the normal, 45 degrees each, and cut them out with a grinder. Carefully and slowly bend the corner and weld the cut area using electric welding; it is recommended to preheat the bend area so that the second shelf does not crack or break during bending.
Acceptable design dimensions for correctly marking and bending metal corners at 90 degrees are shown in the table:
What in the end...
Bending metal pipes is not difficult if you know how to do it correctly. Therefore, I talked about the types of pipes and how to correctly bend each type of metal pipe. The heaviest turned out to be a profile pipe with a square cross-section due to its peculiarity - to “resist” to the last, and then sharply bend in one place. Do not forget to carry out a preliminary procedure before bending the pipes - fill them with sand, and hammer the edges with choppers in order to use the internal limiter.
Question
Write in the comments which pipes you think are easier to bend – metal or metal-plastic?
Stationary equipment
An example of a large machine whose task is to bend an aluminum profile along a radius is a profile bending machine. The main working parts of the equipment are stationary and movable rollers, the geometry of which follows the contour of the workpiece in cross section. Based on the number of videos, they are divided into groups:
Read also: How to use a torque wrench with a ratchet
The first two rollers rotate in the same direction and are on the same line, feeding the profile to the third roller, rotating in the opposite direction. By adjusting the distance between two co-directed elements, the master changes the bend radius of the aluminum workpiece. If a very small radius is required, several passes are made through the rollers.
