 |
 |
| I made some attempts to completely free form bend the pipe as well as bending around a 5 gal bucket that was a smaller radius than i really wanted and found the results were not great | I the end building a quick jig specific to what I needed worked vastly better. The jig is some scrap sidding and some 2×4 blocks i had in the corner. The inner bend radius is made from a blank pine table top that is one inch think. I cut the table top in half and doubled it up so the thinkness was about the same as the pipe. |
 |
 |
 |
I also had problems with the hot soft pipe pinching around the inside of the bend if I bend it too fast. to solve this I added a standard temp plug to one end(image to the left) and drilled a slip plug and added a air fitting and tube with a rubber union for fast removal. The air is supplied at around 5 psi to add inner pressure to help prevent the pipe from pinching as it is being bent. You will have to test pressures for your working style and material as too much air will make the pipe ballon and too little the pipe will pinch as you bend it. |
 |
 |
|
|
|
| Here we have the pipe bent and in the jig cooling. I left the pipe at the full 10 foot length as it gave me more leverage for the bend as well as cooler pipe to hold. The pencile mark on the bottom 2×4 is the layout mark so I know where to cut the pipe. | |
 |
|
| Tape Image | |
 |
|
