Bending Aluminum Tubing

There is a lot you can do with aluminum tubing, and if you find yourself having some, and without the plan to use it anywhere in your home, you can always find some other good use for it. For instance, you can make new handles for your bike with it. Of course to achieve this, you first have to know how to bend it. Aluminum is appreciated for its quality of strength, and this creates a challenge for you, because aluminum will ordinarily not bend. But bending aluminum tubing is not an impossible task. And there is no need to pay someone to do it since with the right tools, you can do it yourself.

You first need to set up a working surface, and assemble together the right kind of tools, equipment and materials. You have to put into consideration such factors as the diameter of the tube that you are bending, and its thickness. This will help you establish the practicality of the whole procedure. The thicker and bigger the pipe, the harder it gets to manually bend it, and in such a case, the use of mechanical benders is always better.

Assuming bending aluminum tubing is possible, you should first find a piece of plywood, and draw the design of the bend you want to make. Ensure the thickness of the piece of wood is bigger than the diameter of your pipe. Use a saw, to cut out the design that you had initially drawn on the wood. Sand it down to get a good circumference that is consistent. Affix the plywood to the work surface, either using clamps or by nailing it down- whatever is more appropriate. This acts as the jig. To preserve the integrity of the bend, you can either fill the aluminum tube with sand and tapering on one end, or insert a spring. Either one works, if done correctly.

The final step in bending aluminum tubing is securing the tubing on one end of the jig. The bending should be uniform, consistent and slow. That means once you start, you cannot stop until you are done. If you move too fast, the shock will cause crimping of the walls of the tube. When you are done, remove either the sand or the spring from the pipe, and cut any excess length that you don’t need. These are the basics of bending aluminum tubing.

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