onyoursix

I really don't know if this is a new idea or not but I thought I would post it and see what kind of response it brings. I was watching a TV show one night that showed a music factory constructing brass trumpets. (I always wanted to know how they made such beautiful bends in the brass) Anyway, when they got to the part of actually making the bends for the instrument they took a normal looking brass pipe and put wax in one end of it and then filled the remainder of the tube with water. Then they plugged the other end of the pipe and "flash froze" it to completly freeze the water inside the pipe. After it was taken out of the freezer the pipe bent like magic with no breaks or pinches! They simply heated the ends of the pipe and the wax melted away. WAHLAAA!! I do know they were using a thicker diameter pipe than most of us use but has anyone ever done this? I haven't tried it yet but just wondered if anyone had even heard of it before.

PAUL

Nathan

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Heard about this while browsing Clay Ramskills newsletter help site.
Take a look - Clay's RC Newsletter Editor Helper Tip #4

I've yet to try it, but it sounds like a reasonable alternative.

rcuser006

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I have used suggestion number 1 but instead of wire I insert a drill bit (blunt end first) into the brass tube. Seems to work OK.

Anyway now I have a set of those spring type benders and they work great.

The ones where you insert the brass tube inside a spring and then bend it.

Nathan

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That's what I use as well... they work very well.

Ed Smith

That is interesting. How do they bend ice, even in a brass tube?

Ed S

onyoursix

I don't really know Ed but I'm assuming that the pipe filled with water can NOT be a very big diameter pipe as the ice would be too thick. BUT it did work on the trumpet like magic and the diameter of the average trumpet pipe is pretty good size. The smaller diameter pipe wouldn't hold a lot of water and thus wouldn't make breaking the ice very hard to do with some pressure. If you follow the site that "Plane Insane" posted it goes into some detail of other ways to bend pipe and it's very informative. Thanks Plane Insane for the insight! Just thought I would ask the question and see what kind of replies would be posted and as usual the people at RC Universe came through. Great site!!! PAUL

Denjones

I don't know about you guys but my wife would not let me put engine parts in "her" freezer. Was the original question regarding bending fuel tubing or just bending large brass? Anyway... I use weed trimmer line inside the brass fuel tubing and you can bent the brass by hand without any kinks. The other night I was bending the fuel tube in my new UltraStick .40 tank and didn't have wee trimmer line but the red spray tube on WD-40 worked just a well.

JohnMcGowan

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Denjones has a good idea there. I have used throttle cable inside the brass tubing before also with good results. John

highflyer353535

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great planes makes a great tubing bender

Steve Collins

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Here is an alternative to bending fuel tubing. Don't. In my many years of experience, I have found that the Kraft/Hayes fuel tanks are a cut above the rest and they do not use brass tubing at all.

These tanks are seldom seen at the local hobby shop but they can be ordered. No rubber stopper to degrade either. About an ounce lighter than other tanks of the same capacity since there is no rubber or brass.

tigerpaw

Hey Guy's;

Old Farmers trick; the tubing we use Al or copper or brass, have a small diameter.

The easiest is to hold your finger over one end, fill tube with salt, that's right TABLE SALT. BEND Tube with hands, dump out salt, blow through bent tube. done. Tube will not collapse.

Try it.

Four_Stroker

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Weed wacker string works wonderfully. Works good with a tubing cutter too.