Bending tubing without a bender?

I only need a slight bend to kinda match a front bumper curve. My idea failed. It's 109 Wall 1.25" tube...

The guys on those chopper reality shows used to build a wooden buck, heat with a torch, and bend that way. Also, see project Binky (episode 2?, 3?). Blackhurst put the pipe between two jack-stands, and bounced on it til it had a curve.

In reply to wheelsmithy:

I saw Blackhurst's antics, that's what gave me the car idea.... No workie. I tried jumping on it too...

What tools do you have? Heat? There's sand bending. You take some sand, bake it in the over to drive the water out, cap one end, fill the tube with the sand, stuff a rag in the other end, clamp it in a vice, heat it with a torch (rose bud tip), and bend it to the shape you want. I've done it, somewhat. I can see that if I went through about $10K worth of stainless tubing, I could probably get pretty good at it.

I have also filled tubes with sand and then bent them on more conventional benders, like a HF pipe bender rig. Less distortion than if you just use the pipe bender by itself.

I don't have a real torch, just a handheld with mapp gas. I only need a few degrees of bend. I don't know if that would get it hot enough though

No, it needs to be about cherry red color. I don't think you'll get that with MAP gas.

There's always subbing it out. Even a muffler shop on their muffler benders should be able to get you a few degrees.

In reply to Dr. Hess:

Yeah I don't think it's going to get it that hot...

And I'm cheap, I'll leave it straight if needed

The times I've brought something like that to a muffler shop, they usually say "no charge." Otherwise, why did the truck idea not work?

If you have a hitch receiver on that truck, tuck one end inside the hitch and get a buddy to help you lift the other end. I have a JD Squared bender and if I over bend a little, I can put the bar in the hitch and "unbend" it a little. In fact, I tend to make my main hoops a little long with not enough bend, and then I can sneak up on it with the hitch "bender" so it ends up super tight at the floor. If you need the bend more in the middle of the pipe, tuck one end in the bender and support the part where you want the bend with something round like a rim or a section of cut up tree trunk. Too bad you don't have a good torch. I use a torch to bend up all of my exhaust systems. Get it cherry red(more like a dull orange) all the way around the pipe and apply force. Keep moving the heat away from where you are bending and slowly you can make a smooth continuous bend. Works fantastic, but you need two people and a good pipe vise. I usually run the torch and my wife, with leather gauntlets, handles the force application to bend the pipe. You could get it hot enough over a fire, but you need to concentrate the heat into a small area so as not to try and bend too much at one time. Too much area glowing and you will kink the pipe. Keep it small and the pipe will stretch on the opposite side you apply the force.

In reply to tr8todd:

I didn't think I could apply more force than a truck driving on it.... Worth a shot I guess

In reply to tr8todd:

Your idea worked, modified a bit.

Trailer hitch, plus floor jack, plus two pieces of 2x material. Done. Kinked it a bit, but it's a light bar, who cares!

Some day I should shoot a video of the wife and I building an exhaust system. The last one we did was one continuous pipe from the headers all way back up and over the rear end into the single Borla muffler at the back. It was 2.25" aluminized exhaust tubing in a race BMW 2002. Need to make a dual system this summer for the LS3 powered TR8 coupe, but that will have a cross over at the gear box so it won't be one long pipe with multiple bends. More impressive to look at, but not as impressive fabrication wise.