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Bending tubing into a Circle

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badriver19

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Ive got some 1.25" .120 wall stainless tubing that i am looking to have bent/rolled into a circle for a steering wheel. Ive got some stainless plate to cut out the center section on the waterjet but i have no clue to go about rolling the tubing into a circle.

Anyone know where to look to have this done? Anyone here have the ability to do it that i could send the tubing to?

I got the tubing at the scrap yard for cheap and i just need a way to bend it.

Let me know your thoughts!!!
 
Why? Just to say you built the steering wheel?

Either like deuling said or a tubing roller but I doubt a roller will make a tight enough circle for ya.
 
I hope you don't live anywhere cold. If you touch that steering wheel with wet hands, you might be there for a while.

and keep your hootus in its home, same rule applies to steering wheels as it does to flag poles
 
I would start with hot rod shops.

There certainly are tubing rollers out there that will do it. I helped a guy build one that only did 1" tube he did decorative copper on houses.

How much do you have? If you had a decent amount you could mess around a bit with sand in it ( has to be packed extremely tight) heat and any round item you can bend around.
 
Maybe you could find a conduit bender like this in the size you need. Or try checking with a commercial electrician to see if they'll do it. They have hydraulic/electrically operated benders.
 
rampage said:
Maybe you could find a conduit bender like this in the size you need. Or try checking with a commercial electrician to see if they'll do it. They have hydraulic/electrically operated benders.
Click to expand...

It's pretty much impossible to bend 1.25 x .120 tubing in a hand bender and it's a tough task to bend a circle with one regardless of pipe size. The are designed to bend 90's and you can go further but keeping a constant radius is pretty hard beyond about 100 degrees.
 
chevydan3 said:
It's pretty much impossible to bend 1.25 x .120 tubing in a hand bender and it's a tough task to bend a circle with one regardless of pipe size. The are designed to bend 90's and you can go further but keeping a constant radius is pretty hard beyond about 100 degrees.
Click to expand...

Not if you had a 180* die and make 2 of em and cut and weld together.
 
rampage said:
Maybe this article will give you some ideas

http://www.metalgeek.com/archives/2005/05/01/000047.php
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link rampage

it does help a bit seeing that article, maybe something like doing lots of small bends a little at a time around a jig. Im not sure how feasible it is yet but it might be worth a shot to try it just for the hell of it to see what i can do like that if nothing else for future reference.

Its nothing pressing of course so ill keep looking around to see if someone can do it for me and also see if there is something homebrew like in the article that i might be able to spend some time on to come up with the results im looking for.
 
I was referring strictly to conduit hand benders. There are electric conduit benders (sidewinders) that would have no problem bending most of a circle.
 
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