Anyone ever bend 7/8" Stainless Tube yourself

[Florida R227]

I'm building an extension to my bimini top to cover the cockpit area when anchoring out. Has anyone ever bent 7/8" stainless steel tubing themselves without special tools? I found on the internet someone who describes building a wood mold of sorts and then bending the tube around it by hand but I wonder if that's really hard and risking ruining some expensive stainless steel. I found a fabricator in town that can do it, but I like doing things myself whenever possible (for the pure satisfaction of it even though it drives my wife crazy). Any advice would be appreciated.

Save yourself a lot of headaches and a lot of ruined stainless and get the fabricator to do it.

[minke]

A plumbers tubing bender with a Mapp gas torch should do the trick.

BP

[Kid Stuff]

Tape the ends and fill with sand. Add heat to bend area. The sand will prevent the pipe from kinking.

[Joe]

Won't the heat discolor it?

[minke]

It buffs right out. I use Mapp to bend thimbles for penant lines then bend them back and buff.

BP

[tiara3100]

I used a conduit bender I borrowed from an electrician. Worked perfectly. I would use a heat gun to heat the metal rather then a torch. No carbon from a flame, keeps the SS shiny.

[Florida R227]

Thanks for the help. I just have to decide if I want to take this on.

[atlanticbeach]

I have made bimini frames and built bow pulpit railings to attach to my Grady Whites of the past and had no problems using the electrical pipe benders mentioned here. The only thing I did was to put duct tape all around the bend area of the tool to protect the tubing and make sure where you grab the tubing with the bender, to tape around the tubing at that point to prevent any marring or scratching of the tubing. It is really easy. Go to Home depot and get a cheap piece of electircal conduit to practice on. I used the conduit to make the template of the bend that I needed to match so it made it easier to bend the tube and match what I was wanting for the bend radius. Good Luck.

[bsmit24]

Electrical pipe benders are typically long radius bends and if you don't mind thats fine but to make tighter bends you may need to use sand and heat as mentioned above. You can also make a wood jig to help and make sure that all of the bends are the same.

Heat the pipe some but during the bend, keep the heat behind the bend. If you what you have not bent yet you will get flat spots and an uneven bend.

[Joe]

It sure sounds a lot easier to take it somewhere.

[wmalloy382]

I did my bow rails on my Grady a few years ago by myself. no need to heat or go nuts.

Just do like the net said. Get a flat piece of wood. Make a Jig in the curve shape that you are looking for out of a good piece of wood. Lock the SS in there with another block. (Screw everthing down well) Then putt your wieght behind it. As long as the bend is not to radical and you apply a pretty even pressure, you should have no problem.

Like I said, I did the bow rails on my grady myself. It took a little time, but it was pretty easy to do. Results were great. It was the first time I tried it and was very encouraged to try it again if I need to.