Bend copper pipe at home. How to bend a copper tube at home: tips from a master. Features of profile pipe bending

Copper products are in great demand in the field of housing and communal services, namely - in the arrangement of water supply and heating networks, as well as - in the conduct of various repair work. Copper pipes are integral components of the heating system when installing underfloor heating. The popularity of this chemical element due to its excellent characteristics: strength, flexibility and resistance to corrosion. And since copper products are stacked mainly at a certain angle, the information is how to bend copper tube at home - for many it will be very useful.

Spring to help

For this procedure, regardless of the bending method, you will need heating tool. Therefore, work must be carried out on fresh air or in a well ventilated area. Great option will become a yard or garage with open gates.

There are several ways to bend at home, but they all differ in the level of complexity, the price of materials and the use of specialized equipment.

The most common method is to bend a copper tube with a steel spring, which must necessarily consist of frequent turns and a thick core, and its diameter would be smaller than that of the tube. This condition is necessary so that the spring easily enters the product. Most best option when the lengths of the products are approximately equal. In the case of a short spring, a piece of wire is required, which is attached to it, and then all together is easily removed.

Many do not know how to bend a copper tube of small diameters. In this case, the size of the spring must exceed the diameter of the pipe that will fit inside it.

Further using heater the workpiece heats up. For these purposes, a gas heater or a blowtorch is suitable. By changing the color of the pipe, you can understand that it is heated quite well and has become plastic. Now you can easily give the copper tube any shape and you can leave it to cool.

Do not forget that it is possible to remove the spring from the pipe only after the final cooling.

You can bend pipes using sand

The next method is how to bend copper pipe at home - quite simple, because no steel springs or specialized devices are needed. The actions are the simplest - heat the tube and bend.

But in order to avoid deformation of the copper product due to its increased flexibility it is better to use the useful advice of experts:

1. Prepare a support surface, a heating device, a couple of pieces of wood with diameters corresponding to the size of the future pipe, and sand.
2. Construction material, in order to avoid deformation when bending copper tubes, it must be dry, sifted, river, without bulk components.
3. Plug one edge of the workpiece with a wood cork, fill the hollow space with sand, repeatedly shaking the pipe for more uniform filling.
4. Plug the other end of the tube with the remaining cork.
5. Then heat up and, leaning on a solid base to avoid tearing the walls of the product, gently bend.
6. Do not overheat the pipe due to the pressure of the sand on its walls.
7. When the product has taken the appropriate shape, it must be lowered into cold water.
8. After the final cooling of the copper pipe, remove the plugs, pour out the sand.
9. It is advisable to blow ready product to remove debris.

Pipe bender application

Consider another way - how to bend a copper tube without applying any additional effort. A reliable assistant in this matter will be a special device - a pipe bender, thanks to which you can save time, speed up and facilitate the bending procedure itself.

What is this device? This is a mobile tool that bends a pipe according to a given parameter, fixing one end of the pipe and moving the other. And the bending point is always in a stable position.

All pipe benders, according to the principle of operation, are classified into:

1. Lever (manual), including a pair of levers with a shoe and a bending template. To set the desired angle, it is necessary to take a guide to the signs on the surface of the levers. Then fix the workpiece in the bracket, match the zeros and do the main work. Using this pipe bender, you can bend the pipe at almost a 180̊ angle at home.
2. Hydraulic related devices professional level and bend the tube much faster than the previous ones. Thanks to hydraulic principle pipe bender, you do not have to strain too much.
3. Electrical, which are used in industrial production or business. With the help of such devices, it is quite possible to fulfill a serial order. Electric pipe benders are powered by an electric drive and are very similar to manual counterparts. The tubular product is placed in a bracket and bent according to the parameters specified by special segments.

Having understood the topic - how to bend a copper pipe, you still have to choose the right equipment in accordance with the parameters of the workpiece to be bent. For example, a manual pipe bender, a spring or sand will come in handy when bending a product of small length and diameter. But only hydraulic and electric tools can change the profile of a large workpiece.

How to bend a copper pipe using a spiral method

Sometimes pipe bending in the usual way fails due to non-standard settings, such as square instead of cylindrical shape blanks. To understand how to bend a copper pipe in this case, you first need to purchase a rubber mallet and a pair of supports. Then fill the cavity of the tube with sand or fill it with ice (in winter); install the product with the ends on the supports; heat the place of the fold; using a mallet to give it the appropriate shape.

Often, craftsmen have to bend a copper pipe into a spiral on order.

This will require:

1. Fire the workpiece for more flexibility.
2. Let cool completely.
3. Pour sand into the pipe or freeze water there.
4. Bend the product with your hands or with a blowtorch, which will greatly speed up and facilitate the bending process.

When bending a copper pipe, you can use a cylindrical support, and then the spiral will turn out to be perfectly even.

As you can see, there are many methods for bending copper pipes. But no matter which one you choose, you must strictly adhere to the basic rules. First of all, perform all actions carefully and slowly in order to avoid deformation and rupture of the pipe walls. Sometimes an unexpected sharp movement can lead to negative irreversible consequences and the rejection of products.

Listen to our useful tips, and you can easily bend a copper billet at home for a future plumbing or heating system.

Copper is a ductile and easy-to-work metal with excellent heat-conducting properties. Copper pipes are often used to equip the piping system and installation household appliances. In the process of working with this metal, many owners faced the problem that when the copper pipe is heated, the bends are deformed and look messy. Dealing with this task is quite simple. It is enough just to know certain subtleties of how to bend a copper pipe into a spiral.

How to bend a copper pipe - an overview of methods

There are several options for carrying out work, each of which has its own characteristics.

spring

The spring method is most often used when working in confined spaces of a small area. It allows you to bend the copper pipe at almost any angle.

To do this, use a spring, the diameter of which corresponds to the size of the piece of copper pipe. You can buy it at construction stores. For pipe bending large diameter the spring is inserted between the inner walls of the workpiece; for thin structures, it is put on from above.

If it is necessary to bend a section of the copper billet remote from the end, the spring is advanced towards it.

Tip: to make it easier to pull the spring out of the bent workpiece after completion of work, it is better to attach a piece of steel wire of the required length before immersing its pipe on the edge of the last turn.

The efficiency of a spring is directly related to the thickness of the strands and the frequency of turns.

By placing the spring inside the workpiece, the surface of the copper pipe is heated with a blowtorch or gas burner. The degree of heating is determined by the change in the shade of the surface. A well-heated section of the pipe is bent at the required angle and left to cool completely.

To give the workpiece a rounded shape when bending, steel pipes and disks of the appropriate diameter can be used as a template. When the cooled pipe takes its final shape, all that remains is to pull out the spring.

The choice of how to bend a copper pipe depends on the wall thickness and the outer diameter of the product.

Manual

The pipe bender is portable tool, which, by fixing one of the ends and the place of the bend of the hollow pipe, with the subsequent movement of the second end of the workpiece, performs the bend along the specified diameter.

Depending on the type of device, pipe benders are divided into three types:

• Lever - the structure is formed by two levers, on the first of which there is a shoe, and on the other a bending template is installed. Marks are applied on each side of the levers, focusing on which it is convenient to give the workpiece an accurate angle of inclination. By aligning the zero marks and fixing the tube in the bracket, bending is performed with the help of levers. With this tool, copper blanks can be bent even at an angle of 180°.
• Spring - are steel springs, one of the ends of which resembles a funnel. A pipe segment is inserted into the spring and bending is performed, giving the desired angle of inclination.
• Hydraulic - belong to the category of professional. famous high speed and the ability of hydraulics to take over all the loads of the operator.
• Electric - the principle of operation of the tool is similar to the manual lever counterpart. The bend radius is set using removable segments. Putting the workpiece on the pipe bender, bending is performed by means of an electric drive. This type of pipe bender is advisable to use when large volumes works.

You can qualitatively bend a copper tube into a spiral using special tools

Spring and lever action tools are effective for bending short lengths of copper tubes with a small diameter. Only hydraulics can handle large diameter structures.

Sand

To give the pipe the desired angle of inclination, the work is performed in several stages:

Video instruction: pipe bending at home

The easiest way to bend blanks made of annealed copper. When heated, they become more lamellar and pliable.

If a bent pipe has not acquired the desired shape, the situation can be corrected by reheating the metal. But it should be borne in mind that it will take much less time to warm up the sand that has not yet had time to cool down. Therefore, when the surface is overheated, instead of acquiring plasticity, the metal will simply begin to melt.

During the plumbing work often there is a need to bend pipes. Depending on the material of manufacture, the methods of how to do this will also differ. In particular, it is worth noting that it is quite difficult to bend the pipe evenly and without creases in the walls, especially when it comes to pipes made of copper. This material has good performance and is often used in plumbing work, so it's worth knowing how to bend a copper pipe.

Work options

It should be said right away that there are several options for carrying out work. Each of them has certain nuances, and therefore it is necessary to consider each of them separately.

Spring

The use of a spring can be mentioned as one of the main ways to bend a copper pipe.

• First you need to choose a steel spring that matches the diameter of the pipe intended for bending. It must be added that only a spring with a thick core and frequent turns is suitable for these purposes, otherwise the effectiveness of its use will be low.
• This spring must be placed inside the pipe. Well, if the length of the spring will correspond to the length of the bent pipe. However, this is rare. Basically, you have to bend a section of the pipe, which is quite remote from the end. Therefore, so that after bending the spring can be removed, a piece of steel wire of the appropriate length can be wound to it.
• After placing the spring inside the pipe, the desired section of it must be heated. For heating, you can use a gas burner or a simple blowtorch. In doing so, care must be taken. As soon as the color of the pipe begins to change, you can start trying to bend it. When the temperature reaches required level, the pipe will bend easily.

• Next, the pipe is bent to the desired angle and left in this position until it cools. As a kind of template for bending, you can use, for example, the old car disc from which the tire and chamber were removed. If you need to bend the pipe more than the disk radius allows, then you can take a steel pipe of the appropriate diameter as a blank.
• When the pipe has cooled and takes its final shape, you need to pull the spring out. This work can be considered completed.

Sand

Another way to bend a copper pipe without a pipe bender involves the use of sand.

• First you need to prepare a sufficient amount of clean sifted sand.
• The pipe must be filled with this sand. To do this, a wooden cork is driven in from one of the ends of the pipe, sand is poured into the pipe, after which the second end is also plugged with a cork.
• Next, the section to be bent is heated to the desired temperature and bent. After that, the pipe is left to cool.
• Then retrieved wooden corks from the ends of the pipe and sand spills out.

The described method is simple and accessible, while the result is quite acceptable.

Manual pipe bender

It must be added that the methods described for how to bend pipes are suitable in the absence of devices intended for this. Here we mean pipe benders. These devices are the most various designs. One of the most affordable to use is a mechanical manual pipe bender. To bend the pipe with it to the desired angle, special interchangeable nozzles are used. They usually have the shape of a semicircle, the outer radius of which corresponds to the radius of the intended bend.

Pipe bending can also be done with a hydraulic pipe bender. The principle of its operation is not much different from the principle of operation of a manual pipe bender, and the only difference is that the mechanism is driven by hydraulics. By the way, you can find both pipe benders, which only increase the muscular strength of a person with the help of hydraulics, and fully mechanized devices that run on electricity. They also have interchangeable tips that determine the bending radius.

For best understanding process, you can watch the video. The pipe is bent into a spiral or we are talking about a slight bend - it does not matter. If care is taken and all stages of work are carried out in accordance with the rules, then the result will meet expectations.

There are many options for how to bend a copper pipe at home. You need to choose a specific method individually. If there is no constraint in means, then the best option there will be a purchase of a pipe bender. Manual models are relatively inexpensive, but at the same time they are able to solve the necessary tasks.

Video

This video shows the installation and bending of copper pipes.

How to bend a copper tube at home: tips from a master

Copper is a ductile and easy-to-work metal with excellent heat-conducting properties. Copper pipes are often used for arranging piping systems and installing household appliances. In the process of working with this metal, many owners faced the problem that when the copper pipe is heated, the bends are deformed and look messy. Dealing with this task is quite simple. It is enough just to know certain subtleties of how to bend a copper pipe into a spiral.

How to bend a copper pipe - an overview of methods

There are several options for carrying out work, each of which has its own characteristics.

spring

The spring method is most often used when working in confined spaces of a small area. It allows you to bend the copper pipe at almost any angle.

To do this, use a spring, the diameter of which corresponds to the size of the piece of copper pipe. You can buy it at hardware stores. To bend pipes of large diameter, the spring is inserted between the inner walls of the workpiece, for thin structures it is put on from above.

If it is necessary to bend a section of the copper billet remote from the end, the spring is advanced towards it.

Tip: to make it easier to pull the spring out of the bent workpiece after completion of work, it is better to attach a piece of steel wire of the required length before immersing its pipe on the edge of the last turn.

The efficiency of a spring is directly related to the thickness of the strands and the frequency of turns.

By placing the spring inside the workpiece, the surface of the copper pipe is heated with a blowtorch or gas burner. The degree of heating is determined by the change in the shade of the surface. A well-heated section of the pipe is bent at the required angle and left to cool completely.

To give the workpiece a rounded shape when bending, steel pipes and disks of the appropriate diameter can be used as a template. When the cooled pipe takes its final shape, all that remains is to pull out the spring.

The choice of how to bend a copper pipe depends on the wall thickness and the outer diameter of the product.

Manual

The pipe bender is a portable tool that, by fixing one of the ends and the place of the bend of the hollow pipe, followed by moving the second end of the workpiece, bends to a given diameter.

Depending on the type of device, pipe benders are divided into three types:

• Lever - the structure is formed by two levers, on the first of which there is a shoe, and on the other a bending template is installed. Marks are applied on each side of the levers, focusing on which it is convenient to give the workpiece an accurate angle of inclination. By aligning the zero marks and fixing the tube in the bracket, bending is performed with the help of levers. With this tool, copper blanks can be bent even at an angle of 180°.
• Spring - are steel springs, one of the ends of which resembles a funnel. A pipe segment is inserted into the spring and bending is performed, giving the desired angle of inclination.
• Hydraulic - belong to the category of professional. They are famous for their high speed and the ability of hydraulics to take over all the loads of the operator.
• Electric - the principle of operation of the tool is similar to the manual lever counterpart. The bend radius is set using removable segments. Putting the workpiece on the pipe bender, bending is performed by means of an electric drive. This type of pipe bender is advisable to use for large volumes of work.

You can qualitatively bend a copper tube into a spiral using special tools

Spring and lever action tools are effective for bending short lengths of copper tubes with a small diameter. Only hydraulics can handle large diameter structures.

Sand

To give the pipe the desired angle of inclination, the work is performed in several stages:

1. One of the ends of the workpiece is clogged with a wooden plug. Then, with clean, sifted and well-dried sand, fill the cavity of the pipe, while tapping its end against wooden base. Having filled the cavity almost to the top, the same plug is put on the open end of the workpiece.
2. The area to be bent is heated all the same blowtorch or with a burner until the bark surface is no longer stained dark shade. The easiest way to check the sufficiency of heating is by holding a sheet of paper to the surface. If it catches fire from contact with metal, it is no longer necessary to heat it. When heating the workpiece, it is necessary to rotate it around its axis so that the flame covers all sides of the pipe.

Since copper is a soft enough metal, craftsmen recommend using sand to prevent deformation of the product when it is bent.

-instruction: pipe bending at home

The easiest way to bend blanks made of annealed copper. When heated, they become more lamellar and pliable.

If the bent pipe has not acquired the desired shape, the situation can be corrected by reheating the metal. But it should be borne in mind that it will take much less time to warm up the sand that has not yet had time to cool down. Therefore, when the surface is overheated, instead of acquiring plasticity, the metal will simply begin to melt.

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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 inferior to copper by 3-4 times, besides, the exact brand of stainless steel is not always known, and only food grades that can withstand high temperature and do not react with alcohol.

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. Fill the tube tightly with dry bulk material, for example, 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.