# My acrylic tube bending solution



## tyrophagus

Have a look at this page in my journal to see how a pipe bending spring helps 

http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=11074&start=70


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## Arana

Been searchin for a way to bend acrylic, thanks for posting i will be giving this a try in the new year


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## ceg4048

Wow, sheer genius mate. I think even I could do that, and I've got 10 thumbs. Thanks for sharing!  

Cheers,


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## a1Matt

Bookmarked!

Thank you


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## Gill

Superb Guide thankyou, Bookmarked the supplies


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## chump54

hello tyrophagus,

just about to order some 20mm x 2mm acrylic pipe... I was wondering if you had anything you would do differently now you've had your acrylic pipes up n running for a while?

thanks for the info btw 

Chrus


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## nayr88

I use those to bend tubing on site a lot, I thought it was the obvious way, and using salt or sand was the cheap ass way lol


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## Steve Smith

I've made this post sticky to help people find it


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## idris

From what I've seen and tried, you get spiral indents if you use a spring which you don't if you use sand. The down side of sand is that you need to pack it really tightly (tapping the tube for a couple of min to get it all really well packed is better than using dowel as a ram rod) to make sure the tube doesn't flatten at all, which I dont think you get with springs.

Can you get tighter bends with springs of sand?


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## tyrophagus

chump54 said:
			
		

> hello tyrophagus,
> 
> just about to order some 20mm x 2mm acrylic pipe... I was wondering if you had anything you would do differently now you've had your acrylic pipes up n running for a while?
> 
> thanks for the info btw
> 
> Chrus



I suppose the one downside is trying to clean the the larger diameter spraybar.  The springs do cause some indents at the bend but it's not something that glares at you in the final product.  I think it's easier to use springs than sand but I have not tried sand.

Hope things turn out well for you.  You might want to order extra tubes as there's some trial and error involved.


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## somethingfishy

on the verge of having my first go at this thanks for the inspiration  im a sparky so im no stranger to a bending spring but the conduit i use is not seethrough, i will be interested to see how clean a bend can be achieved.


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## jetsfan

Tried this a couple of times now. Failed on each occasion!!
Trying to do two 180 degree bends with pipe bending spring but each time the outside of the bend (obviously) becomes thinner and splits!
Don't even care about the indents from the pipe bending spring but at £6.45 a length I've wasted some money so far!
Forgot to say,split a 1 Mtr length in two and tried the bending.
What am I missing?? Getting desperate to set up now and trying to fashion these bends is stopping my set up!
Am willing to buy and have one more go so any advice would be welcome as to how to avoid acrylic pipe splitting when bent. 90 degree bends are a piece of cake but any further and they just split for me!


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## foxfish

I dont know what you are doing wrong but you dont give many clues either - what size pipe are you trying to bend, what type of heat source & to what degree of softness do you achieve before attempting the bend.
Personally I dont like the effect the spring leaves & actually find it quite easy to just use my hands & fingers to produce the bend.
12 & 16mm pipe is quite easy, 20mm is pretty difficult - perhaps your issues revolve around the quality of acrylic?


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## GHNelson

Hi Guys
Here's a fellow who's mastered the art :arrow: 
Cheers
hoggie


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## Aqua sobriquet

Gosh he's good!


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## GHNelson

Yea.... doesn't look that difficult.
I wonder if a plumbers blow torch would be the tool to use.
hoggie


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## ian_m

He is using glass, which I feel is a lot easier to manipulate than acrylic.


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## GHNelson

ian_m said:
			
		

> He is using glass, which I feel is a lot easier to manipulate than acrylic.



Oops   I didn't realise that....although i like the idea of turning the tube up on its self to give the U bend.....also plugging a cork into one of the ends to help blow out any deformity.
These two ideas could be used on bending acrylic....just my thoughts.
Cheers
hoggie


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## geaves

This site has a video on bending acrylic, the guy 'blows' his own lily pipes.


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## GHNelson

geaves said:
			
		

> This site has a video on bending acrylic, the guy 'blows' his own lily pipes.


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## jetsfan

Trust my computer to go down just after i posted!! had to re-install.
I was trying to bend 16mm pipe (2mm wall thickness) purchased from the ebay seller linked in the article.
Think it's called clear plasticsupplies.
I used a  hot air gun as used for paint stripping held in a vice as i ran the tube over it but i must be cack handed as the outside of the bend keeps splitting.
That guy doing it with glass tube makes it look so simple!!
Thanks for the replies guys. I've not given up yet.more practice needed.


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## Aqua sobriquet

Maybe the tube isn't hot all the way through? Not sure if it would help or not but maybe you could get it close to temp by placing it in boiling water first then continue with the heat gun. BW is 100C and I think the tube will bend easily at 130-140C.


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## jetsfan

Having watched the links people put up theres one guy doing Acrylic but very slowly and carefully!
i think i probably got my tube to hot and soft when bending.thought i was being careful but maybe not.
Those links are well worth watching


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## biffster

dont mean to sound a dummy on this matter but i have 
looked high and low for acrylic pipe as i was hoping to make
my own in let and out let lilly pipe style i live in the north east 
and ebay is not an option for me so the best thing is somewhere 
i can pick it up from


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## LancsRick

Hoping for a bit of help. I'm trying to bend some tube (16/20), and I'm using a spring and heat gun, but I keep getting "wrinkles" on the inner curve of the bend. What's the cause of this? Cheers!


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## tim

either acrylics not warm enough or your rushing the bend mate or do you mean wrinkles as in the imprint from the spring its a lot of trial and error with acrylic in my experience can be nearly as costly as lilly pipes


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## LancsRick

Not from the spring, it's the actual acrylic. I'll try heating for a bit longer and trying again, cheers.

I'm probably going to do at least 2 of my tanks, so it'll work out cheaper in the long run. There's no denying that my first couple of metres aren't likely to yield anything useful though!


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## tim

its a patience thing IME mate you could always pm easerthegeezer for some tips he made some very tidy spraybars


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## nduli

LancsRick said:


> Not from the spring, it's the actual acrylic. I'll try heating for a bit longer and trying again, cheers.
> 
> I'm probably going to do at least 2 of my tanks, so it'll work out cheaper in the long run. There's no denying that my first couple of metres aren't likely to yield anything useful though!


 
did you manage to sort them out to your satisfaction?


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## biffster

i use a set of these and a hair dryer with a nozzle on for concentrating the heat
 SET 5 TUBE BENDING SPRINGS For 1/16 - 3/16" OD Tubes Model Engineer Live steam | eBay


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