what's the best way of bending this!!

[flamephil]

hey!!
got a project that i'm not sure what's the way of doing it!
bending a large radius out of 1.5" pipe on 20 foot long, take a look at the picture and feel free to give your opinion on you would do it!
thanks

[littlefuzz]

not sure but I want one. might be easier to use some 1/4 flatbar for the bent pieces and weld in struts.

[chopper5]

is it some kind of snow board grind rail :confused:

[flamephil]

yes it's a snowboard rail that i have to make for the local ski hill.
don't have acces to a roll forming machine and would like to make it myself, also want to be nice without kink!

[chopper5]

what kind of equipment do you have ?

[lorenzo]

Would you be buying the stock from a steel supplier? Sometimes the steel suppliers have forming services..... you just need to know the rudius of each rail.

[littlefuzz]

If ya don't have a good way to bend the pipe, I think 1/4 x 3 flatbar would be sufficient and a lot easier to shape. Put struts in as you go and put your UHMW on top. Pipe would definatly look better though.

[flamephil]

almost anythiong a small shop has: welder, torch ....lathe , milling but no roll bender!! this 20 feet long with matching radius(approx25 feet radius)!

[flamephil]

absolutely need pipe as snowborder slide on them , there .250"higher than the plastic!!

[lorenzo]

You wouldn't want to to use flat bar because the edge of the bar could damage the underside of the board. Plus the radius would be different from pipe to pipe, the outside pipe would have a larger radius. If you had a 25' radius for the centerline of the outside rail and the inside rail was set 12" from the ouside rail you would use a 24' radius for the inside rail.

[chopper5]

well you could heat one side of the pipe with your torch make a red hot stripe and let it cool and that will put a curve in it but thats going to use a lot of gas
you'll need to draw an arc on the floor or make a wood template to make them same

[flamephil]

sorry, didn't put enough details.
25 fett outside radius with matching radius at 16" between pipe.
20 feet long 1.5 sch 40 pipe!
heating could be a good one but as you said, need alot of gas!
mabye multiple small bend at equal distance!

[zapster]

your in really deep here..

how did the first project turn out that you posted?

one at a time...

...zap!

[flamephil]

finally went good!!

[flamephil]

trying to send pics but too big and too dumb to know how to resize!!

[flamephil]

pics of other rails i did

[WHughes]

I am also too dumb,
Sign up at photobucket.com and upload them and then click edit and resize them for whatever application you need.

Bill

[flamephil]

pics rails structure

[zapster]

good job!:cool2:

and you were worried about a little "twisting"..:laugh:

...zap!

[flamephil]

anyone tried bending tube by attaching both end with a ling and hand winch to radius(large like in the pics)???

[Wetback]

Huge Jig. and a Torch.

[TEK]

If you have a steel table you can weld some pipe or round stock to it. Two pieces a couple of feet apart and a plate welded on the centerline of those where you can put a hydraulic jack. Place pipe against rounds. Put jack on plate. Push to a mark, little bites at a time.

[littlefuzz]

absolutely need pipe as snowborder slide on them , there .250"higher than the plastic!!

I figured the board would be in contact with the uhmw instead of the pipe, sorry I'm an amateur snowboarder. I haven't got to the rails yet, I try to concentrate on staying up :)

[Weldingyota92]

Where you at man we have two rollers at work and I plan on making one as well. we roll a lot of rail and tubing so making one of those shouldnt be to hard. Try finding a hand rail company near you thay all have rollers that can make that bened in like 10minutes flat man..

[lotechman]

anyone tried bending tube by attaching both end with a ling and hand winch to radius(large like in the pics)???
I think that winch idea on a 25 foot radius would work quite well. The ends are not going to bend as easily as the middle third. Make a wooden template/sweep and compare the inside as you pull. When the middle comes to the correct radius tack a brace on the inside then continue tensioning so that the outer ends bend to match.

[tessdad]

For tears my Dad and I used a couple of Oaks. Just outside his shop we had two large Oak trees that came up from one stump giving us a nice "V".
Make a paper pattern (I use brown building paper, Kraft paper). Mark of the pipe in equally sections (4"-6") on longer jobs like yours I also number the sections, so as you progress on you can keep track of where you are, this also helps when your making your second piece, as you can tell just what section needs to be tweaked as you lay them on top of each other.
If you do not have the trees in your yard, weld some large diameter pipe (6"+) to anything immobile, bench, truck bumper, etc. We one used a very large wooden cable reel to form matching 5' diameter circles to make a "German Wheel" you see acrobats use these in Circ-de-Sole (sp) shows.

[mribeiro]

I used to have to duplicate 10 or more long curves by hand with a hip bender. Granted this was only alluminum schedule 40, but we did it sometimes with 2" pipe. Takes a lot of practice to keep the twisties out. My first bimini bow (that's what we called them) took me 5 hours to get right. With practice I could do a single boats worth in the same time.

[psychosis]

the best way i can think of achieving what you want to do is as stated, mark out a radius on the floor then use a pipe bender, i have one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/0APB0-WHOLESALE-12-TON-PIPE-BENDER-RETAIL-249-99_W0QQitemZ160061614518QQihZ006QQcategoryZ104220Q QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

then mark the tube with a pen at 1" increments. line up the middle of the die at each increment and do a set number of pumps on the hydraulics. bearing in mind that as you move along, you're bending the previously bent section a little more. very much about trial and error but can give excellent, smooth, seamless results once you get the knack.