cfyella

Would anyone know how to stop a steel or aluminum pipe from wrinkling on the inside of the bend with a hydraulic bender? I'm thinking about getting a 16ton air hydraulic pipe bender to make custom intercooler piping and exhausts. The only thing that is holding me back is that I don't want ugly oval shaped bends when air or exhaust needs to flow well. Help please.

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"Nobody remembers who finished second but the guy who finished second."

 

Kamkaze

Get a mandrel bender.

cfyella

The reason I'm making custom parts is to save money. Mandrel benders are way to expensive.

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"Nobody remembers who finished second but the guy who finished second."

dogstar

Crush bending creates crush zones... you ain't gonna eliminate it completely but there are a couple ways to reduce the effect (filling with sand, putting a spring inside or outside the tube and so on) some of which are practical, most are not.

If you want to do your own exhausts and tubing and do a NICE job just buy mandrel bends from a speed shop or distributor, then weld together as needed. Once you've got the materials, it's up to your welding abilities to make it look pretty.

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theironmonk

Mandrel bent steel or alluminum pipping is not that expensive I beleive it $10-20 a bend and straight pipes are even cheaper.

Red Raspberry

If you have any big electrical contractors around they should have 3" pipe benders that use mandrels.

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2010 Red 2.0L track

tgpfarm

some links:
Cebby's JD2 Model 3 Hydraulic Conversion
Tubing Bender
MetalGeek : Code, Metal and Cleverness: How to Bend Tubing and Pipe by Hand
how_to_build_a_tube_bender
200 Build Your Own Bender Specs

And I know I have seen youtube videos of diy mandrel benders.

Also you can get pre bent stuff:
Exhaust Tubing
H-Pipes, X-Pipes & Merge Pipes - Exhaust - SummitRacing.com

But if your trying to make stuff to sell, a mandrel bender is a must. Which is going to run you some cash.

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3.8 Yellow Track 6MT
I am talking out of my a$$ 99% of the time.

FlesHBoX

there are non-mandrel benders that will not "crinkle" but you will always end up with deformation without using a mandrel. The reason mandrel works is because it actually stretches the metal around to maintain the round shape. Any other method will result in the wrinkled, crushed bends, or an out of round bend. The out of round bend is definitely better than the crush bends for any application where fluid flow needs to be maintained, but is going to be far less than optimal than mandrel bent.

IMHO, totally worth the extra money to at least go for the pre-fabbbed mandrel bends and weld them together.

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mmrp81

Fill the pipe with sand. The compressed sand minimizes the warping of the metal on the outside and inside of the bend.

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