It is taking me a few years but that's ok. Progress is slow but it's progress. I tried making my header pipes with a pipe bender. You would think, pipe bender for pipes, right ? Nope.
But I learned from it. Now I am making a tube bender - from wood. Sounds bizare to me but it might just work. I cut 3 pieces of 3/4" plywood glued and bolted together and shaped for the main radius and the minor.
Then groove them initially with the end of a belt sander, then the rest is elbow grease with a wood rasp combined with a die grinder to cut a groove deep enough for half the tube to rest in. See video.
I might add steel plates on both sides to reinforce the plywood because I have to bend a lot of tubing. A long way to go but I think I have the depth established. Just have to repeat -- a lot.
So far, so good. Might be able to refine it with a lathe. Maybe.
-- Edited by Cuddles on Friday 29th of November 2024 03:12:50 PM
-- Edited by Cuddles on Friday 6th of December 2024 11:39:06 AM
stainless is incredibly hard to bend in a steel bender - never mind plywood.
Your bend radious is likely too large to be usable to construct headers. I might suggest you would be money and time ahead if you were to buy Stainless elbows and cut weld them into a header.
Do you have a tig machine and skill set to weld said stainless? Its not easy.
And it needs purged too.
I had better luck when i started by buying a set of headers for the motor, and cutting individual tubes to be rerouted.
Then i started building headers by pie cutting 15 and 45 degree sections of tube and welding them up - very clean end product - which can be done with a mig - just grind the welds smooth when done or leave as is if you are an exceptional welder.
Easy to rotate pieces to get curve and direction - then use 1" tape to hold in position till you tack.
Thank you Jarvis, Seeker and Marten. I wondered how long it would take before someone would tell me I am going about things all wrong. I am getting used to that.
I did purchase a bunch of pipe from Speedway, some straight and some pre-bent. But after all my efforts in designing my headers to be equal length (24"), I mistakenly ordered the wrong radius tube. So I now have nice, new pre-bent tube I can't use.
So I am trying to make up for that error by making the bends myself. Just too expensive to buy the same thing twice from Speedway.
My friend Bill said he used tubing from Home Depot for the headers on his bug that he takes to the drags so I bought some at HD. I did the math for the radius and hope I'm correct but confess, math was my worst subject in school. You are probably correct about my radius being wrong but I got this far. I might as well see how far off my calculations are. I finished cutting and filing out the grooves yesterday. I don't have a lathe.
I saw a video of making a tube bender from steel but the guy used old, larger pipe to cradle the tube which I don't have but plywood, I have. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I do plan to reinforce the wood with a steel plate on both sides and bolts securing it in place. I have a pipe bender but that just kinked the tube.
Like so often happens, I could be just wasting my time --- but it MIGHT work ? Interesting to see. If it doesn't, plan C (whatever that is). I seem to be accumulating a collection of nice new parts that I bought that were the wrong parts and it is getting shameful. I have to try to compensate for my errors.
I don't know how to tig yet but I am anxious to learn. Nice fine welds. Just beautiful to look at. But I still rely a lot on my grinder for my mig welds so I have a long way to go.
I made my mock-up headers from electrical conduit and I even designed and made some clamps to hold the tube in place while I weld. It took all winter to make the mock-up headers in the basement. As I said, I am getting used to discovering I am doing something all wrong and it gets discouraging, especially now that I have two vehicles to make mistakes on --- but I am learning with every mistake I make. Thank you for helping guys. At least now when I see a proper job finished in somebody elses photos, I can appreciate their efforts.
I think seeker posted photos of a turbo. I haven't learned enough yet to know what I am looking at but the bends are impressive. Thank you Iwannagofast.
To reduce the kinking..... Have you tried using sand inside your tube ? And heat ? If you think about it the outside of your bend will need to stretch and the inside will need to shrink. The sand is there for support to the inside walls.
__________________
The best way to get on your feet is to get off your ass.
Well, it was the only way to heat up the tubing. Actually, we filled the tubing with sand, heated it up cherry red and went to a convenient wooden telephone pole behind the barn, bent the tubing without any wrinkles, went home for the night and when we came back in the morning, the pole was hanging by the wires and the FD was scratching it's head.
Warren
Geez !!! I was gonna ask about the story. It was worth waiting for. The crazy stuff guys do is fascinating.
I have included a photo of the conduit mock-up I made some time ago for my headers. In steel, I want to paint them white. (The other image I can't delete. Don't know why) Sorry.
-- Edited by Cuddles on Thursday 5th of December 2024 04:04:00 PM
-- Edited by Cuddles on Thursday 5th of December 2024 04:07:56 PM
Well Seeker and Jarvis, half the fun for me is learning how to do stuff plus I already bought a set of tubes but mistakenly with the wrong radius. It is too expensive to buy the same thing again. I just want to see if I can do this. Maybe I can't but I want to find out.
I see all the amazing stuff guys do here when posting photos. Astounding stuff. This looks fairly simple to me so I need to know I can do it. I just need to follow the good advice found here (and stay away from using hydro poles). But the theory worked. Maybe I can do it too.
Besides, I mocked up my own design from scratch, all the tubes 24". If I can do these bends, the only thing left is welding the pieces together. If I have someone Tig the pieces, I won't feel bad because I can't Tig (yet !). But thank you for your kind advice. I do listen.
