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nightgrider

nightgrider

Well-Known Member
#41
#41
sparkwizard said:
I owned and operated muffler shops for 30 years. I am pretty comfortable welding thin tube, rusty tube and filling gaps with a MIG. My major malfunction is that I always had a big, heavy hydraulic exhaust pipe bender standing in the middle of the shop. All I had to do was hold the pipe in front of the jaws and press my knee on the paddle switch until it was bent far enough. It was so simple, I am now unable to fathom how to use this Harbor Freight hydraulic jack with a couple of rollers and different size pipe shoes. Fabricating stuff without being able to bend the pipes to clear components makes me feel really stupid after becoming quite good at bending pipe to fit under , basically, anything.
nightgrider: if you have a reciprocating saw or a grinder, you COULD leave you component round, mark it and either just hold the end of it to your grinding wheel for a while, then roll it over and hit the other side. Best tubing notcher I ere used. My preferred quick method is to fit my parts together, mark the end of the pipe right where it touches the side of the other pipe, then just saw a couple of half-moons out of it. Weld'em up.
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I have a Harbor freight hydraulic pipe kinker. It works but is definitely not the ideal tool for the job. I've been eyeballing this Chinese manual bender.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1228130118...cgmy_-cT6S&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
 
nightgrider

nightgrider

Well-Known Member
#45
#45
sparkwizard said:
Me Too!! I have the HF version but it is for solid flat stock. It works well, but no round stock.
Be aware that PIPE and TUBING are different.
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When I fill the pipe with sand I've got about 1 ok bend. About 80 degrees. It still is kinked a bit but with in the acceptable range for me. The bottom bend is the best I've been able to achieve. And I've been using schedule 40 pipe. Which it is supposed to bend. It starts kinking after about 35 degrees. It is because the shoe has too much slop in it. So it doesn't conform to the pipe well. I mean it is Chinese quality control. It is what it is.
 

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sparkwizard

sparkwizard

#46
#46
My guess
1. Start with the rollers all the way inside. Pump the handle until it stops. Release pressure. Move the wheels up and out one notch each.
2. Keep doing that until you get what you want.
Try to keep the rollers close to the center of bend, so you are bending the straight pipe outside of where it's already bent. On an exhaust pipe bender, the shoes follow the outside of the pipe and shove it against the inside curved piece. I don't have the patience to do this.
 
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nightgrider

nightgrider

Well-Known Member
#47
#47
T
sparkwizard said:
My guess
1. Start with the wheels all the way inside. Pump the handle until it stops. Release pressure. Move the wheels up and out one notch each.
2. Keep doing that until you get what you want.
Click to expand...
The bottom bend was achieved with a sand filled pipe. No rollers, just the pins. And just give'n it to it on the bottle jack. Not too bad. My "bender" has multiple problems that I've identified, but I'm well outside the period of time to return it. And I'm stubborn, so it's what I'm working with. I've done the bend it a bit and move it an 1/8 of an inch, biut haven't played with it too much. Need to do some more test bends to know exactly what needs to be done to get good bends.
 
nightgrider

nightgrider

Well-Known Member
#49
#49
sparkwizard said:
when you fill pipe with sand, do you cap the pipe? Do you pack it down, tap it on the floor before you cap the other end? Just leave it open?
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I've just been using duct tape to "cap" the ends. I have a dowel rod I used to pack it down. I fill it a bit at a time and pack as I go. I've heard wet sand works even better. I've just been using dry play sand (because it is cheap).
 
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