Tool The mandrel bender

[Mcgyver]

Peter had suggested i show the mandrel tubing bender I made. I've got a light predecessor to show as well. The challenge is, when making models on prominent pipe work that looks like an undistorted round sweep can be challenging - especially very small bend radius - e.g radius is tube diamater

My first attempt, my design had an outside shoe that sandwiched, tightly, via na eccentric, the tube between it and the inner roller. Worked pretty well














But then I saw Ian Hunts mandrel bender and wanted to give it a try. The idea is that deformation occurs where the bend is taking place and the mandrel bender supports the tube, at the spot, inside and out.

In comparison it is a beast and will do a long more than small copper stuff.





continued....

 

[Mcgyver]

indexing lets you index bends

 

[Maker Mike]

Wow, both of them look like they would work very well. Did you work from existing plans or come up with your own? How big of tubing could you bend with it?

 

[Mcgyver]

Thanks Mike. First was my design, second by Ian Hunt - drawings appeared in Model Engineers Workshop. In part made it because i didn't quite get how a mandrel bender worked 🙂

 

[gerritv]

Awesome work.
I have always been intrigued with this design for small tubing:

 

[PeterT]

Thanks @Mcgyver for pics & description. That is quite the beast. Some features I have integrated into my own homebew design, others I think I should steal. Sometimes it pays to drag ones butt.