is there a way to get a "relatively" smooth bend without having a mandrel bender? I may want/need to make a few bends wne doing my system. Bends less than 90 degrees...

ive heard of filling the tube with sand and welding the ends closed. anone used this method before?

Im lookin for something relatively cheap to do that will get good results. not considering time and effort

has anyone done it here?

 

there is a pipe bender that my stepdad uses to bend condouit(sp?) piping ...and it bends it nicely (close to mandrel)...maybe there is a larger bender that can be used on exhaust pipes....it might work actually...but it would probably take a few people holding the pipe while you pull the bender (large pipe with a groove)...


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1- is where the pipe goes...the area to be bent
2- this is actually shaped so that the oval peice (head of the bar) rests right on top of the pipe to be bent...so that it doesn't slip out...
3- just pull on the handle to bend...but this is for condouit (sp) which bends much easier....but I'd bet that a larger version of this would work for exausts as well...I'd like to see someone make/use one themselves!

 

Just get some pre-bent mandrel sections, and cut and weld them together into the shapes you need.

 

www.jcwhitney.com reasonable priced mandrels w/o the labor of bending them.

To bend tubing large enough for exhaust would probably require a little more than mere muscle power... http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=32888

1¼" is roughly the largest bender I've personally seen for thinwall EMT conduit.

 

yeah, i ordered some from jcw, but i imagine there will be some bends that arent exactly 90 or 45 degrees and i will either want to tweak those or make smaller ones as well


anyone use the bender from harbor freight? Ive heard it wasnt for exhaust tubing, but thats assuming i dont stuff the pipe with samd and weld it shut right?

 

That's why you get U bends and chop them up as you need.

 

The Harbor Freight bender is for pipe not tube.

 

They do make a bender for exhaust piping that uses a hydraulic press,,,,,providing you actually have the press already. It really just consists of a few dyes for different size pipes and you use the press to bend the pipes,,,,it is no where near mandrel bending though but for a cheap system on a car not worth the money it works ok.....If it were me I would do what was suggested above and purchase a batch of mandrel bent pipes, cut and swell as needed and weld them together, as long as there isn't too many joints everywhere it can be done to look decent. Larry.