How to bend a pipe at home - some effective ways

When running in the house plumbing, heating system or installing a heated floor, craftsmen often have to think about how to bend the pipe at home, made of a particular material. Of course, it is easiest to use a special pipe bender for this, but not everyone has it at hand.

To help in this matter, we will consider several ways to perform this operation.

Pipe bending technology

In houses and apartments used pipes from a variety of materials. Accordingly, for each of their types there are different methods of bending (see also the article How bending of profile pipes is carried out).

Metal pipes

To bend a metal pipe is quite difficult, however, it is quite real. Moreover, for almost all types of metal pipes you can use the same method. Perhaps the easiest way to perform this operation with a copper product, since copper is a soft material.

The main problem is only to avoid breaking, but this is not difficult - you just need to fill the pipe with sand. Thus, it will be possible to prevent the deformation of the section on the bend.

But, if everything is simple and clear with a copper tube, how can you bend an aluminum pipe at home or steel, because it is hardly possible to do it with your hands? The solution is to use a gas burner.

Instructions for performing this procedure using a burner are as follows:

• First of all, the tube must be inserted in a vice.
• Then the place of bending need to be heated with a gas burner.
• After the section of the pipe is sufficiently heated, it can be bent by holding the long end of the pipe in working gloves.

Tip! To determine the degree of heating of aluminum, it is necessary to bring a sheet of paper to it, which should ignite or smoke. If the product is steel, then a sufficiently warm-up will be indicated by the bright red color of the heated section.

Separately, it should be said about how to bend a square pipe at home, as this procedure differs from the above:

• First of all, the cavity of the product must be filled with sand and a wooden chopik is inserted on both sides so that the sand does not spill out.
• Then the part is laid on two supports, the bending area should be on the weight.
• After that, at the place of bending, you should hit the rubber mallet to obtain the desired result.

Tip! When deciding how to bend a stainless pipe at home, you need to measure its diameter and wall thickness. Manual methods will be effective only if the diameter does not exceed 40 mm, and the wall thickness is 3 mm.

There is another method that allows you to bend pipes even large diameter - this is to make cuts. However, after completion of the operation, the cuts need to be welded and then cleaned up the welds.

It should be noted that this method is suitable for both round and square metal pipes.

Plastic

Plastic products are not designed to bend, since deformation will lead to a narrowing of the inner diameter and loss of throughput. To perform turns using special finished parts - fittings.

Moreover, their price is unlikely to cause someone to engage in bending in order to save.

If you want to get a smooth bypass of any obstacle, you should use the so-called stroke, specially made by the manufacturer for these purposes. However, for those who, despite all the recommendations, insists on the need for bending, there is still a way to bend a plastic pipe at home.

So, the operation is performed as follows:

• Inside the product it is necessary to have a spring of a suitable diameter, which will allow to keep its internal diameter.
• Further the site of a bend is warmed up by the building hair dryer.
• After softening the plastic, it is not difficult to bend the pipe part with your own hands. However, it is necessary to hold it in this position until it cools completely.
• At the end of the procedure you need to pull the spring.

Tip! If you want to get a bend with a radius of at least 8 diameters of the product, then the procedure can be performed in a cold way.

Metal plastic

At first glance it may seem that the plastic bends without any problems and does not even require much effort. On the one hand, it is, but only if you need to get a bend of a large radius. If the turning radius should be small, then the material can simply break.

In order to prevent breakage of the part and deformation of the section, as in the previous case, it is necessary to use a spring. Since the material is soft enough, the bend area can not be heated.

Tip! To pull the spring, it must be rotated clockwise. To do this, it must have special rings around the edges. Otherwise, this task may be difficult.

Here, perhaps, are all the most effective ways to bend pipes at home.

Conclusion

Bend the pipe, made from almost any material, it is quite possible at home. However, it should be understood that the result will be different from the one that allows you to get professional high-precision equipment (learn here how to bend plastic pipes).

From the video in this article, you can get more information on this topic.