Tube bending without a tube bender, is it possible?

I am working on a project and I need to bend a 1.5 inch by .095 tube to approximately 110 degrees. I do not have nor do I have access to a tube bender. If I can not bend it I will most likely just cut and weld.

I thought about heating it and trying to bend it, but I do not want to kink it. So, do you know of any other method to bend a tube without a tube bender? Thanks for help.

Fill with sand then heat and bend.

I've always been told to fill and bend. Seems to work okay on bike frames.

Duct tape one end, fill with dry sand, tamp down and fill until you can't get another grain in, and duct tape the other end. Put the pipe in a vise and heat the back of the bend with a torch.dont allow it to get even dull red or it will deform. Pull the end with a steady pressure as you heat. Helps to have two people. You have to continually move the torch around the bend as it develops. To much heat in one area will result in the back of the bend deforming. It helps to put a length of 1/8 inch flat bar in the vise on the inside of the bend do you don't get vise marks on the tube.

You definitely want to try a couple of practice bends first.

Fill the tube with water 1st than add the sand to displace the water,should be way better compaction than just adding the sand and trying to tamp it every few inches.

Buy a conduit bender, maybe?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ge6oWOzu9s

as the man says at the end..."Voila"

Do a image search for wood tube bender and adapt what you see to what you have available.

kevlarcorolla wrote: Fill the tube with water 1st than add the sand to displace the water,should be way better compaction than just adding the sand and trying to tamp it every few inches.

Except that if you apply heat, temp will not rise above 212F until the water has been boiled away, perhaps with explosive and comedic results since the tube is filled with packed sand.

You need 1 simple bend in a common roll cage size. Why are you not going to your friendly local roll cage fabricator with a case of beer and your piece of tubing?

Water expands to over 1700 times in volume when it flashes to steam. Can you say pipe bomb. Best bet is to say where you are located and see if a board member is nearby that has a bender. Other than that, I have had great results bending exhaust tubing with just a torch, a vise, and some welding gloves. Might work out with roll cage tubing, but I have a bender for that.

NOHOME wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ge6oWOzu9s as the man says at the end..."Voila" Do a image search for wood tube bender and adapt what you see to what you have available.

Very cool bender but the results look a little pinched / deformed.

Or call a local commercial electrical contractor - big ol' Greenlee conduit benders and such, but I don't know how much it deforms the tube. Some specialty wholesale houses might bend tube as well.

Find an electrical shop by your house, ask if they have a cyclone or triple nickel bender. The shop guys, who clean the tools in back will take the 5 minutes to bend the pipe to see if they can do it. The only problem might be the size of the radius.

Thanks for the input everyone, ended up filling with sand and tamping every couple inches. Applied heat then bent it around a drain pipe and "voila" no kink and a nice clean 108 degree bend (not exactly what i wanted but close enough to work). Thanks again