Tag Archives: Copper Pipe Bending

Mag Loop – Part 2

Well got the 28mm pipe from Plumbase Ely (01354 663711), excellent service and very reasonable delivery charge, spent £2.99 at Argos for children’s play sand, filled the pipe and sealed the ends with insulating tape.

The Bending Rig (link) worked ok, the grooves were designed for 37mm pipe so the 28mm flared slightly due to the high walls, also as the spacing of the rollers was quite wide, the bend started at a fixed point set back from the end of the pipe which means the circle can’t be fully formed this might make connecting difficult if I decide on a dual loop configuration.

The pipe has a number of compression creases which is a shame, the crease at the bottom of the bend was due to me thinking that I could close the last few inches by pulling the loop together – WRONG!!, but as this was the very first one I’ve ever done, it turned out ok, I do have a spare length of 28mm, so next time I will try not to rush the bending process and I might even try and heat and anneal the pipe so as to make even more malleable.

SAM_5300 (Medium) Loop held by my very able other half.

Mag Loop Bender Rig

Made the pipe bender for the magnetic loop today, the idea is that by slowly bringing the pinch roller closer to the static rollers after each pass of the copper pipe, a bend will be introduced, repeating this with slightly more pressure will ultimately form a loop.

I thought how best to engineer the screw mechanism to apply pressure to the pinch roller against the static rollers and decided it was time to dust off my old trusty Workmate bench.

SAM_5296 (Medium)

The wood grooved rollers were made locally after I put a shout out on ‘Streetlife’ a local community website, these were made to accommodate 37mm pipe as that will be the maximum I will ever be able to afford!

In order to make the rollers, freely rotate I fitted bearings with a 10mm shaft size (10off 25mm x 8mm shielded bearings for £5.12 Ebay).

SAM_5292 (Medium)

I drilled three 10mm holes through the Workmate top (I did look at using the existing holes on the Workmate top and sleeving them, but their was no benefit over drilling relatively small holes), using 10mm threaded rod I passed this through the worktop (2off 10mm x 500mm £3.00 Wicks).

SAM_5293 (Medium)

Made up a cheap and cheerful handle (Flat bar 1m x 25mm x 5mm £7.12 Wicks) for the pinch roller and bolted this through the worktop using 10mm threaded rod.

SAM_5294 (Medium)

SAM_5295 (Medium)

The next step is to get some lengths of 28mm copper pipe and see if it works, I’ll be using sand inside the pipe in the hope of avoiding any creasing,(fingers crossed).

Link to my first result of bending 28mm pipe.