Bending tube...have a question

[josh86k10]

I have a 20' stick of 1.5" .120 wall HREW that I am going to use to make some side protection for my rear bumper. I'd rather use DOM, but this is laying there, has no other purpose, and metal is expensive, so I'm just gonna use this instead. Now the question.... my current design requires that I make 2 bends in one piece of tube 90 degrees off from one another (one in the horizontal plane, one in the vertical plane). I've always been taught that when bending HREW, you should always keep the seam on the inside of the bend. Obviously, bending in 2 separate planes prevents me from doing this in at least 1 of the bends (it will be on the side of one of the bends). How big of a deal is this? It's not a roll cage or anything so safety is not so much an issue, it's just to help keep crap off the side of my truck. Thanks in advance.

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

First off, this is the perfect application for HREW. No need to spend the coin for DOM on your bumper.

Secondly, don't worry about the seam. You'll be fine.

 

[slyguy_22]

you should be fine they only recomend that u keep it on the inside of the bend cause it is less likely to split at the seam. and even if it does a lil bit you can just weld it back together

 

[8_YOUR_H2]

Me and friend just bent up a bumper on his toyota and didn't pay any attention to the seam. And as you can imagine with yota owners there were at least 5 bends in each piece of steel and about 30000000000 feet of tube.

Everything came out fine with no issues or splits in the steel

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

The welds on HREW and DOM (they are welded the same way, DOM is just processed more) are very strong and should not split or be the weak point of the tube.

 

[josh86k10]

Awesome, thanks guys.

Josh

 

[81jimmyslt]

Also make sure to keep the seam that is not on the inside of the bend towards the body of the truck.