Bending copper pipes with your own hands. How to bend a copper tube - proven and reliable methods. instruction: pipe bending at home

A coil is an indispensable part of a moonshine still, designed to condense alcohol vapors by removing heat from water or air through the walls. In spite of complex definition anyone can make a coil at home. Homemade option will work no worse than store counterparts. We will consider the theory and practice of manufacturing.

Coil parameters:

1. Material. The most important factor affecting the safety and taste of moonshine. The material of the coil should not react with alcohol or be toxic, but at the same time have sufficient thermal conductivity to condense the alcohol vapor.

Given the requirements, you can make a coil of copper, aluminum or stainless steel. suitable material glass is also, however, it is easier to buy a ready-made glass coil in a chemical store than to make something similar yourself.

Copper has the best thermal conductivity, but many moonshiners consider it a toxic material, in fact it is not. For example, for several centuries the French have been distilling all strong alcohol in alambicas - special copper distillers, and so far no one has been poisoned. In second place in terms of thermal conductivity is aluminum (1.6 times worse than copper), but it is relatively cheap, accessible and easy to process. coils from of stainless steel they are 3-4 times inferior to copper ones, besides, the exact brand of stainless steel is not always known, and only food grade ones that withstand high temperatures and do not react with alcohol are suitable for moonshining.

2. Dimensions. The longer the tube, the more area contact of vapors with water (better cooling), but at the same time, the hydraulic resistance increases (the speed of the distillation decreases). The correct length of the coil in the moonshine still (the tube itself before curling) is 1.5-2 meters.
The larger the cross section (inner diameter) of the tube, the larger the contact area and the lower the resistance. I recommend using a tube with an internal diameter of 8-12 mm.

The small wall thickness of the coil increases thermal conductivity, improving condensation, but too thin tubes are difficult to process and operate, because they are very fragile. In addition, when two media come into contact, in our case, condensed alcohol and steam, the thermal conductivity drops sharply, regardless of the size and material of the wall. Optimal Thickness coil tubes - 0.9-1.1 mm.

3. Orientation in space. The coil can be positioned vertically, horizontally or obliquely. In moonshine it is desirable to use vertical scheme connection, in which the condensed distillate flows by gravity and does not create additional obstacles to the movement of steam.

Vertical coils are ascending (steam goes from bottom to top) and descending (from top to bottom). For minimum resistance, steam must be supplied from above.

4. Cooling system. The coils are cooled with water, ice and air. The last two options are less efficient and require complex structures, so we will not consider them further. Water cooling systems are open - they work on running water, and closed - the tank is immediately filled the right amount water. Design closed systems simpler, but they cool worse, often the moonshine turns out to be warm at the exit, and after a couple of hours of distillation, even hot.

AT open systems water circulation cools the coil much better, moonshine turns out cold. In addition, in flow structures, a smaller water tank is used, as a result of which the apparatus is more compact.

Correctly supply water from below, and output from above. For normal cooling, water must move towards moonshine, otherwise the lower part of the coil will not cool well. This scheme is called "countercurrent mode".

Coil Manufacturing Technology

You will need a copper, aluminum, brass or stainless steel tube 1.5-2 meters long, with a cross section of 8-12 mm and a wall thickness of 0.9-1.1 mm. In advance, I advise you to find a housing (reservoir) for installing the coil. The diameter of the pipe winding depends on the size of the body. For example, a plastic sewage pipe with a diameter of 75-80 mm. For effective cooling, the coil must occupy at least 15-20% of the volume of the tank.

The coil installed in the body is called the refrigerator of the moonshine still, the drawing is shown in the photo.


Subsequence:

1. Stuff the tube tightly with dry bulk material, such as river sand or soda, so that the metal does not flatten when curled. In extreme cases, you can fill the tube with water and freeze.

2. Stuff wooden chopsticks (pegs) onto the ends of the tube. Alternative option- solder or clamp tightly. It is desirable to weld a nut on one end.

3. Wind the tube around any smooth object with an even round section desired diameter(in the example 35 mm) with a pitch between turns of 12 mm.

4. Release the ends of the coil, pour out the sand, rinse with running water.

5. Install branch pipes for water inlet and outlet on the cooler body.

6. Place the coil in the housing, install plugs at the top and bottom, seal all connections with superglue or in another way.

Average length copper pipes equals 50 meters. Accordingly, their installation is impossible without the need to make bends on the pipeline elements. There are several ways to bend products.

spring method

Provides bending of the product at virtually any angle. It is usually used in confined spaces. The total cost of these installation works is very small. Installation of copper pipes is quick and easy;

Lever method

The price of lever equipment is quite high, but it can always be rented. Used when installing copper pipes with the same diameter. The maximum level of flexion with this method is 180 degrees. Lever tool provides easy installation;

manual method

Most economical option relative to the cost, but at the same time quite effective. Using a manual pipe bender at home eliminates the risk of cracks and deformations on the pipes. With all this, there are also disadvantages: the pipe bender requires the application of certain physical forces, it is not suitable for mounting long products;

hydraulic method

The most expensive of the proposed options. It is very easy to bend a part with it, because the hydraulic mechanism provides maximum ease of operation. Used for bending the most different diameters due to the presence of a set of segments.

It is easiest to bend parts made of annealed copper due to their ductility. It is even possible to bend the product to a large radius by hand. One bend can be done only once, since in the future the elasticity of the product decreases. The gas heater allows you to return to the previous qualities. It is enough to heat the part a little and quickly bend;

Products made of unannealed copper can be bent in a similar way. The copper part is heated by a gas burner, then bending is performed.

Small Radius Tools

If a small radius bend is required, special tools are used: springs and pipe benders.

pipe bender

When using a pipe bender, you can make the required bend without heating and annealing. The pipe bender should be fixed in the working area, then bend the product under the desired radius. Parts with a diameter of 28 mm allow you to make almost any bend, but you need to save minimum value inner diameter equal to 14 mm. Otherwise, there may be difficulties in transporting liquids.

Spring

When using a special spring at home, it is required to preheat the pipe to 450-550 degrees. Only after the desired bend is made.

Recommendation: Copper with an internal diameter greater than 28 mm must be heated before bending, regardless of how you work. Heating up to 450-550 is required for both fired and unfired parts.

It is also important to remember that copper products with large diameters cannot be bent by hand. Heating, a pipe bender and other tools are required. Otherwise, there is a high probability of deformations, fractures.

Installing copper pipes is easier than steel products. This work is within the power of every person who has the desire to understand all the intricacies of the work.

Bending copper pipes is a technically simple task, but it requires attention and accuracy from the performer. Copper, as a fairly plastic material, is easily mechanically affected, and therefore the pipe can be easily bent at home with the help of human physical strength. But accuracy is very important, because when the load is exceeded, the metal can be deformed and become unusable.

No complicated equipment is required to bend a copper pipe: all the work can be done at home using simple fixtures, for example, a conventional spring or river sand or applying special tool- pipe bender

Copper pipes are often used for arranging in-house and apartment engineering networks. Hot and cold water plumbing, heating system based on copper, shows itself to be durable and holds well thermal energy coolant.

During the installation of a system based on copper pipes, it is necessary to change their direction, circle around obstacles. Sometimes plumbers use flanged and socket connections, tees and bends, but in practice they reduce the reliability of the system and leak over time due to wear on the seals.

Bending pipes maintains the tightness of the water supply, giving it the desired shape. You can physically bend the pipe manually: the thinner the diameter and the wall, the easier it is to mechanical stress.

Important! In fact, pipe bending is the stretching of the metal surface by outside fold and its compression - on the inside. If more force is applied to the pipe than required, the surface can be deformed, a wavy section is formed where the metal structure is less strong. In this case, it will be almost impossible to restore the original structure of the pipe.

Copper pipe bending methods

For manual bending of a pipe made of any metal, always use heat. metal surface heated with a gas burner or blowtorch at the bend. Once the required temperature has been reached, the pipe can be carefully shaped to the desired shape by carefully bending it to the required angle.

If you need it made of copper, then it's best not to try to do it without special devices because the result can be disastrous. One of the devices that allows you to perform this procedure as efficiently as possible is a pipe bender for copper tubes. Such pipe benders, presented on modern market various models are successfully used in the creation of communications from copper pipes - water pipes, air conditioning systems, etc.

Benefits of using copper pipes

The high popularity of copper pipes, which are actively used in many areas, is explained by a number of advantages that distinguish such products.

• Pathogenic bacteria do not develop on the walls of copper pipes, so these products can be successfully used for the installation of pipelines through which drinking water is supplied to consumers.
• Copper tolerates mechanical loads of various nature quite well.
• Copper piping is exceptionally durable. However, the cost of installation and service maintenance relatively low.
• Installation work and preparing for them are quite easy.
• For the installation of pipelines made of copper, on the modern market there are a large number of components, so this procedure does not cause any problems.
• Plaque does not form on the inner walls of copper pipes. This means that the lumen of the pipeline does not decrease, respectively, its performance does not deteriorate.
• make it possible to successfully operate pipes made of this metal in a fairly wide temperature range: from -200° to +200°.
• Due to the presence of a stable oxide film, copper perfectly resists corrosion, so copper products can be successfully used for a long time.
• Copper pipes are characterized by high decorativeness, which allows them to be used in almost any interior.

Varieties of pipe benders

When choosing a pipe bender for copper pipes, one should take into account both the characteristics of the product itself, which is to be processed, and the parameters of the desired result. It is worth dwelling on the design features of each of the most common bending devices for copper pipe.

Spring

Spring pipe bender for copper pipes, despite the simplicity of its design, is different high efficiency. The basis of the design of such a device, as its name implies, is a spring with dense coils, made of high-strength steel. One of the ends of such a spring is expanded to make it more convenient to put it on the tube being processed, as well as remove it from it.

The principle by which it works is quite simple and consists in the following.

• A spring, the inner diameter of which must correspond to the outer diameter of the copper tube being processed, is put on it with its wide end.
• Through physical force exerted on the spring, the tube is bent to the desired angle.
• After the copper tube is bent, the spring is removed from it through the same end through which it was put on.

The advantages of such a pipe bender for copper tubes include:

• small mass;
• simplicity of design;
• ease of use for solving various technological tasks even in confined spaces.

Meanwhile, the bending device for copper tubes, equipped with a spring, has a number of disadvantages.

• To bend the tube, you must apply physical force.
• Getting the exact bend angle of the tube is quite difficult, there is always a high probability of underbending or bending.
• It is necessary to pull the pipe bender through the tube to the place of the future bend, which is especially inconvenient when it is far from its edge.
• It is not possible to use the same spring to bend copper pipes of different diameters.

The minimum allowable bending radii for copper tubes are defined in the design code copper plumbing SP 40-108-2004

Mechanical

Using a pipe bender for copper pipes mechanical type, it is possible to significantly increase the force applied to the bent products. In addition, such devices make it possible to achieve a sufficiently high accuracy of the bending angle.

Depending on the design, they are divided into several types.

Bending of tubes on such devices is carried out by the action of a lever mechanism. Segment pipe benders allow you to bend pipes with a diameter of up to 42 mm. The largest bend angle when using such a device is 180 °. These devices got their name due to the fact that the tubes in them are bent around a special template, which is a segment - half of the disk. Second important element The design of a segmented pipe bender for copper pipes is a handle - a lever on which a rotating roller is fixed. When such a handle is turned, the roller begins to act on the copper tube fixed in the fixture, bending around it around the template segment.

Crossbow

These pipe benders both externally and according to the principle of operation resemble a crossbow. These devices are also equipped with interchangeable segments for different bending angles, allow you to work with copper tubes in the diameter range of 10-22 mm and bend them up to 90 °. Mechanical impact on the tube in the process of bending it is carried out due to the ratchet mechanism and lever present in the design of crossbow-type devices.

These mechanical type pipe benders are the most popular, due to the simplicity of their design and trouble-free operation. Using such a device, it is possible to work with tubes in the diameter range of 6-22 mm, while bending them at an angle of up to 90 °. The lever pipe bender has two levers in its design at once, on one of which a bending template is fixed, and on the second - a special shoe. Both the template and the shoe are marked to allow the tube to be bent to the required angle.

To bend the tube using such a device, its handles-levers must be parted in different sides, put the workpiece into the bending template and fix it in it. After performing such preparatory actions, a lever with a shoe is placed on the tube. To bend the tube to the required angle, you just need to start to bring the levers together, doing it slowly and carefully.

The manual pipe bender is the most simple device, allowing you to work with pipes whose diameter is in the range of 5–125 mm. The main structural element of such devices is a mandrel, which can be inserted into the inner part of the pipe or stretched over it. outer surface. To bend a pipe with a manual pipe bender, it is necessary to pull it through a mandrel that already has the desired bend angle. The use of such devices requires the application of significant physical effort during bending, which is their main drawback.

Such devices are actually crossbow-type pipe benders, the design of which is supplemented by a hydraulic drive. By using such a drive rather than a ratchet lever, this type of machine can bend tubes ranging in diameter from 10 to 50 mm. The disadvantages of hydraulic pipe benders, which require minimal physical effort when using them, are their rather large dimensions and high price.

How to make an effective pipe bender with your own hands

When wondering how to bend copper pipes correctly, it is not at all necessary to purchase a serial device for this: a simple but effective device can be made with your own hands.

The popularity of copper pipes in the installation of heating and water supply systems is understandable - they are durable, flexible, and resistant to corrosion. But the layout of apartments often forces you to change the shape of the existing blank. At home, this is not so easy to do, but there are several ways. How to bend a copper tube at the right angle? You will learn about this from this material.

Physical properties material is largely determined by the features of working with copper. Due to plasticity, the workpiece at the bend can decrease in diameter or even break. But you can deform the copper pipe manually. Methods for improving bending strength will be described later.

The second feature of copper pipes is the need to heat them for deformation. Of course, thin-walled workpieces are easy to deal with without a soldering iron or gas burner, but it is better to warm up thickened elements (where there will be a bend) to make your work easier.

The third feature of bending copper pipes at home is the mandatory use of compensating elements. This is necessary to minimize the appearance of "corrugation" (waviness) on the inner wall of the tube. Examples would be sand, a steel spring, sometimes ice. Now we will analyze the well-known methods of how to bend a copper tube at home.

Bending methods

Methods for shaping a copper pipe into a curved shape are conventionally divided into two categories:

• industrial;
• household.

Industrial flexible tubing refers to the use of special equipment - pipe benders. The most common are hydraulic and mechanical (manual). The former allow minimizing the physical effort of a person, have interchangeable nozzles for selecting a suitable bend diameter, and are used for overall copper tubes. The latter are compact, work due to the muscular strength of a person, and also have replaceable nozzles in the form of a semicircle.

When repairing or installing copper pipelines, a pipe bender is not always at hand. Therefore, users manage with improvised means.

Household methods for bending copper tubes

These methods are distinguished by applicability in a limited space, that is, ordinary apartment. Overall equipment is not needed, bending the copper billet will turn out not much slower. Among the methods of bending copper tubes are:

1. Spring. Lets bend metal pipe at any angle. A spring is used, the length of which is equal to the length of the pipe. When bending forms large diameter it is placed inside the workpiece so that it rests against the walls; smaller diameter - worn outside. If it is required to deform a small section of the product, the spring is pushed to the place of the intended bend.

How is copper pipe bending done with a spring? The sequence of actions is as follows:

• place the spring outside/inside the tube;
• warm up the bend (or the entire pipe) blowtorch or gas burner;
• when the surface changes color to a darker one, proceed to bending;
• after deformation, leave the workpiece to cool completely in natural conditions;
• remove the spring.

To get the product of the desired shape, you can use metal round objects as templates (for example, car rims, other pipes, etc.).

1. Sand. Here again we need a heating element and clean, sifted, completely dry sand. The sequence is:

• one of the ends of the copper pipe is clogged with a wooden plug (using a wooden or rubber hammer!);
• the pipe cavity is filled with sand, while the workpiece is periodically tapped with a wooden plug on the surface (table, floor);
• having filled the product completely, put on the same plug from the other end;
• act with a blowtorch or gas burner on the intended place of the pipe bend, rotating the workpiece for uniform heating;
• press one end of the pipe to the support, and gently bend the other in the right direction;
• allow the deformed part to cool (in natural conditions or pour over with water).

The method is good in that if the pipe is unevenly bent, it is permissible to straighten it - tap the place where the deformation went badly with a hammer. After the tube has cooled, the plugs are removed from it, sand is poured out, washed and used for its intended purpose.

If bending is performed in winter, it is allowed to fill the internal cavity with ice. However, this is undesirable - when bent, it can crack, and the fragments will damage inner surface tubes. Although, if there are no special requirements for the latter, it is worth taking the method into service.

Complicated bending of copper pipes

It happens that you need to bend the workpiece of a non-standard profile. For example, not round, but square. The spring method is not applicable here. It remains to use sand, a mallet, plugs and two supports. A pipe is placed on the latter, then it is heated, then the bend is tapped with a hammer until the proper shape is given.

What to do if you need to bend the tube into a spiral? It's simple - you just need to find a template cylindrical shape with the required diameter. The copper billet warms up slightly, then bends. This will create an even spiral.

There are several ways to get bent copper pipe. Each is good in its own way, but there are points that are always important to consider, regardless of the chosen method of deformation.

1. The main requirement for the user when working is accuracy and attentiveness. Sudden movements will lead to excessive deformation of the pipe walls and their complete rupture.
2. Parts made of annealed copper are easiest to bend, so it takes a minimum of time to heat them up.
3. If the bend is not made where necessary, you can reheat the workpiece and bend the product back. However, no one guarantees that the shape of the tube will be the same.
4. When the surface is overheated, the metal may simply begin to melt. It is unacceptable. The user must closely follow the process from start to finish.

Manual bending of large-sized copper pipes is impossible at home - you can't do without industrial pipe benders with a hydraulic drive. Small pieces for mounting heating system or water supply bend easily, and with minimal effort. Even a person with no experience can figure out how to bend a copper tube at home if he is careful. Do you know other ways to work? Share with readers your experience in discussing the material.