Bending 2" diameter pipe/tubing

[Peter Matteson]

Two things:

1. Remeber pipe and tube have different O.D.s so if you use exhaust "pipes" its actually tubing.

2. Would electrical conduit serve your purpose? It's easy to bend and any electrical supply house should be able to provide what you need. Plus its galvanized so unless your welding that is usually a bonus.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Sandrag,
Muffler shops bend pipe but it changes the diameter to prevent cracking the side wall. Electricians bend pipe all the time. Any larger contractor should be able to make it happen in just a few minutes. I would ask around at your school, they liklely have a contractor they normally do business with who would do the job.
The bender you linked to is generally not designed to perform 180 degree bends. Most often these are used for 90 and 45.

[petek]

Conduit and pipe benders (like the one you linked) would do the job, but you'll be limited to their bend radii, which are pretty much standard. These mostly use a fixed bending shoe, proportional to the conduit diameter - I think code requires at least 6 X conduit dia.. For a "custom" radius, you'd need a different kind of machine. You might find a custom motorcycle shop which could do a custom bend for you.

In any case, at $75 the Harbor Freight machine may not be a bad route if it will do the job. You might pay that much in labor to have tubes bent for you.

[sanddrag]

Conduit will work. It will be welded together, but we can grind off the galvanizing first and/or weld outdoors. It is possible that instead of a continuous 180 degree bend, that I can join two 90 degreee sections.

Today I'm going to go take a look at 90 degree EMT conduit sweep elbows, that harbor freight bender, and some exhaust shops.

[sanddrag]

Took a look at the HF bender. It's die is for 90 degrees. Looks like a decent unit, but repeatability may be a problem. Took a look at 1 1/2" EMT conduit sweep elbows. Liked em so much I bought a couple (only $5 each). The radius is pretty much perfect, and conduit will be nice because it won't rust and it doesn't cost too much. So, I think that's what I'm going to do. Cut and weld together two 90 degree 1 1/2 inch EMT sweep elbows. Seems like the easiest way out.

BTW, 1 1/2 EMT conduit is closer to 1 3/4 OD if anyone was wondering.

[Dad1279]

You can also buy pre-bent tubing: http://www.woolfaircraft.com/elbow.htm from aircraft & speed/racing shops