I need to bend some aluminum tubing ?

[cuervo]

I need to bend some aluminum tubing, mostly 90s I guess.

What type will bend and not crack and how thick of a wall would I need to keep it from crimping?

I know 6061 is to brittle to bend. What about 3003? Are there better types for bending?

Thanks.

 

[tRustyK5]

i've bent 6061 1.5" tubing through a tube bender, it was fine. 6061 sheet can be prone to cracking when bent, but even then the bend radii has to be pretty tight. I'm pretty sure it was .120 wall, 5.5" bend radius. The key was a generous slathering of grease on the die set and the tube itself. I tried without the grease and it galled like a bastard on the follower.

Rene

 

[Slapperbar]

You could always anneal it first.

 

[cybrfire]

PM stomper on this board. He's really good at it!

 

[Stomper]

PM stomper on this board. He's really good at it!

I hate you

 

[Stomper]

I need to bend some aluminum tubing, mostly 90s I guess.

What type will bend and not crack and how thick of a wall would I need to keep it from crimping?

I know 6061 is to brittle to bend. What about 3003? Are there better types for bending?

Thanks.

Somewhat like Rene, I bent some 1.5" 6061 pipe. I used pipe because that was the die size for the cnc bender that was used. We never went over 35 degrees for fear of cracking.

 

[wasted wages]

If you are afraid it will crimp on you fill the pipe with sand....cap the ends....bend away......

 

[tRustyK5]

Somewhat like Rene, I bent some 1.5" 6061 pipe. I used pipe because that was the die size for the cnc bender that was used. We never went over 35 degrees for fear of cracking.

No guts, no glory! The tube I was bending up was handrail for some helicopter outfit. 135 degrees no problem. Grease is your friend! I was using my JD2 bender...

It's kind of a funny story, there I am working for a company that builds high end, precision tooling for the aircraft industry. They know their tools, damn smart too. We were going over the drawing package and this particular job had an exceedingly stupid delivery date. We had NO time at all for any hiccups. My boss's took one look at the handrail spec's...OD aluminum tubing, and lots of bending involved. They always used a local company for getting tube bent up, but their lead time was 3-5 weeks which they didn't have.

I told them about my JD2, and they looked skeptical. So I took them outside and showed them the cage in my old black K5, and that got some smiles. I didn't have a 1.5" die set, so they took my 1.75" die set and gave it to the machinist and told him to use it as a "pattern" to make a 1.5" die set.

The night after that I started bending (by hand). I had all the handrail stuff bent up in 2 nights and ended up looking like a hero. They had never heard of a manual tubing bender before...go figure.

Rene

 

[cuervo]

Thanks for the post guys. I just went with 304 SS. You'd think it was gold plated!