Posted by Larry Loo on January 21, 19100 at 22:24:15:

In Reply to: Bending 3/4 posted by Ray on January 18, 19100 at 16:42:42:

You can use a conduit bender to make slight bends spaced along

the length of tubing you're using. By continually checking the

curve against a full-sized template you've drawn on plywood or

cardboard, you can determine where to make the additional bends -

until you've achieved the full sweep you're trying to attain.

This may be a laborious method, and, one that requires you try to

keep every bend in the same plane - otherwise, you'll get a

sinuous kind of curve.

A better way might be to make "male" and "female" forms by

bandsawing the full-length curved forms out of two thicknesses of

3/4 plywood, glued or nailed together. Cut the mating sides at a

45 or 60 degree angle so that you'll have a lengthwise groove for

the tube to rest in - after you've assembled them together. Make

tight-fitting wood plugs to fit in each end of a copper tube.

Hammer one plug fairly tight into one end of a tube, then fill

the tube with fine sand - like 30 mesh sandblasting sand (you can

buy a bag of this from Home Depot or some other building center).

You must continually compact the sand tightly in the tube by

tapping the capped end on the floor until you can fill no more in

a tube. Then pound the second cap into the open end (take a

little of the sand out first). If tightly filled with sand, the

bending can be done without any flat spots resulting in the

finished curved tube. The actual bending is done by clamping the

tube between the male and female forms. You will need a number of

bar clamps to do this. You may find that the radius of the forms

needs to be slightly less than that of your desired curves -

because there may be a small amount of springback when you take

the tubes out of the forms. Because copper tubing is in the

annealed state, you may be able to bend the tubes by hand around

a male form (nailed down to a large piece of plywood). The use of

forms will help you to reproduce as many identi

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