Bending anodized aluminum pipe

tbaze372 · Tue Apr 08, 2014 1:33 pm

Does anyone out there bend anodized alum pipe on a regular basis? What kind/brand of bender do you use?

AKweldshop · Tue Apr 08, 2014 5:18 pm

One of our Members, TamJeff, Is an expert at it.
Does a lot of it.
He'll be here shortly.

Good luck.

~John

btw,
Welcome to the forum

Tue Apr 08, 2014 6:45 pm

tbaze372,

Welcome!

I can't wait 'til Tamjeff chimes in on this!

You may be surprised to know he does much of his bending on homemade hardwood dies. No scratching, that way. With anodized, appearance is everything.

Search his posts; he's a genious with anodized aluminum.

Steve S

Mike · Wed Apr 09, 2014 3:50 pm

Welcome to the forum tbaze372.

Wed Apr 09, 2014 8:39 pm

Come to think of it, I've not seem TamJeff lately... I might have to check up on him.

paul_s · Thu Apr 10, 2014 2:48 am

Welcome to the forum.

tbaze372 · Thu Apr 10, 2014 7:46 am

I have a JD2 model 32 bender now with a couple dies but I am not sure if this is the most effective way to bend alum.... Much less anodized. Delron follower block doesn't scratch but I would think the steel round portion would. I'll have some anodized in the shop tomorrow. Gonna give it a try.

450dualsport · Thu Apr 10, 2014 10:10 am

tbaze372 wrote:I have a JD2 model 32 bender now with a couple dies but I am not sure if this is the most effective way to bend alum.... Much less anodized. Delron follower block doesn't scratch but I would think the steel round portion would. I'll have some anodized in the shop tomorrow. Gonna give it a try.

I'd be interested in hearing how it works on aluminum.

I was thinking about buying a model 32 bender. I called JD2 and they said it would definitely scratch aluminum. They also said that the delrin dies were only available for one of the high end hydraulic units (I can't remember which one).

tbaze372 · Thu Apr 10, 2014 11:40 am

My model 32 bends alum easily and with the Delron dies, it doesn't leave any marks that paint would cover. The anodized coating is harder and will run some of it thru the ended tomorrow.

tbaze372 · Thu Apr 10, 2014 3:17 pm

Sorry, that last post was from my phone. My model 32 is manual and can easily handle schedule 40 pipe up to 1 1/2". I haven't tried anything bigger than that. The bender is not expensive but the dies with the larger radius do get pricey. As far as bending alum, the follower block has Delron inserts which does not scratch the alum. However, on mill finish pipe, it does leave very suttle marks. These marks are easily covered by paint. I will be running some anodized thru it tomorrow to see if it scratches the finish. I hope not, right now it is the only way I have to bend pipe at this time. That is why I started this post. Just wanted to see what other guys were using.

Attached is a piece of very ruff mill finish. The marks on the pipe are not from the bender.

Superiorwelding · Thu Apr 10, 2014 6:35 pm

2 Cents,
I don't remember ever bending anodized aluminum pipe but I did once have a job that took 4 bundles of pipe. I don't remember the grade but i do remember we didn't have a plastic die, so we use "red and tacky" grease VERY liberally and it came out fine, not necessarily scratch free but good enough for what we were doing. These rails were installed in their natural state so it couldn't have been bad.
-Jonathan

tradetek · Fri Apr 11, 2014 11:04 pm

Have thought about making a wooden tube bender for a while (so many thoughts so little ability to work...), but the ention of delrin was interesting so I took a peek on eBay and it looks like you can get some pretty good sized delrin rod for much less than what a set of metal dies would cost and then machine out the groove for the tube size you needed.

Bill

tbaze372 · Tue Apr 22, 2014 8:51 pm

I spent some time last week running some anodized pipe through my bender. It left a fine line right at the center line radius from the forming die. I talked to JD2 and they said to work the forming die at the edge. I did and it made the problem worse. Talked to them again and they are sending me a new die. It should be in tomorrow.

As far as milling my own completely out of Delrin, I could probably figure out how to do it but I dont have the time. I like the idea though. If I did I would probably start out with a piece of hardwood to see how much work I was in for!

Wed Apr 23, 2014 7:34 pm

tbaze372,

Member Tamjeff bends anodized aluminum around hardwood all the time, and every inch of his work is exposed and expected to be perfect.

I'll see if I can prod him to chime in on this topic.

Here's an example of his work on anodized aluminum:

http://forum.weldingtipsandtricks.com/v ... f=9&t=2417

Steve S

TamJeff · Thu Apr 24, 2014 3:26 am

If you are using steel dies, sand them with up to 600-800 grit nd polish them with a good rouge wheel.

Run 'regular' 3/4" masking tape on the pipe where it contacts (at the pipe center line, obviously)the "shoulders" of the die. As pipe bends, the walls become oval'd and the shoulders of the dies contact them on what is now the high sides of the bends. The masking tape will of course abrade at that shoulder point, but the pipe will be fine. Two strips of tape just longer than the dies are. I had to do this on every bend with the "One-Shot" bender we started out with. It really wasn't that much of a hassle.

Spray soapy water on the pipe where the follow die travels even if it's plastic. I kept a bottle of soapy water hanging on the bender when I used the manual Hosfeld for all my fab work.

If I were to get a bender and could only get steel dies? I would order the ones for bending EMT and add thinwall, "PVC" pipe liners for them shaped to fit with a heat gun. That's what we did to the Hosfeld dies. EMT is tubing so they are slightly larger diameter and the PVC makes it a perfect fit for sched 40. Even steel follow bars can be lined with PVC if using the soap water trick. I have bent miles of pipe in this manner.

Most recent entry. Just finished with it yesterday. Did another right before it and starting another tomorrow.

tbaze372 · Thu Apr 24, 2014 3:30 pm

I gave the tape a try with the soapy water and it worked like a charm. The only bad part was getting the tape off! Had to break out the adhesive remover. I am also going to sand down and polish the dies when I get a chance.

I am using brushed anodized and have a considerable "frosting" effect on the outside of the bend. Is there anything I can do about that? Is the polished anodized just as bad?

By the way, that is a sweet tower drive. You must work on the gulf coast somewhere....what state?

TamJeff · Thu Apr 24, 2014 11:32 pm

Florida.

When I am done, I typically clean the tower with a soapy rag and then give it a coat of lemon pledge. It 'wets' the crazed anodized and makes it blend in better. After awhile, you don't notice the difference. I recently worked on a tower I built about 25 years ago on a Grady White and it still looked like brand new. Guy said all he did was keep it washed with soap/water and give it the pledge treatment once/month during season.

The polished pipe does it worse, but it does not affect the corrosion resistance of the anodized. Still, overall, it becomes unnoticeable and the heat zones from the welds craze some as well. The smoke from the welding wipes right off if you catch them still warm, with dry paper towel that doesn't have nylon strand in them.

If you work with anodized, or around boats in general, naptha is a staple. I keep a repurposed rubbing alcohol bottle with the squirt top full of naptha near my bench at all times. It will take the tape residue, china marker etc right off. As I pull the tape off, I use the balled up sticky tape to 'snag' and pull off the tape that gets left on the pipe and then wipe the rest off with the naptha rag.

That tower is a bastard one-off born of a bunch of different expectations/limitations. Customer supplied a photo and what I built looks nothing like it. I was glad he liked it after all that.

tbaze372 · Thu May 01, 2014 5:10 pm

Thanks for the advice Tamjeff. I will sure try the furniture polish trick. I am a newbie to tig welding aluminum but not to welding. It has been fun learning so far and I have been pleased with some of my results. I have a friend who is a small boat builder that want me to do his aluminum work for his boats(grab rails, rod holders, cooler stands, etc.). I told him I would give it a shot and so far it is working out. I hope you dont mind if I pick your brain from time to time!

Thanks again.

T

basura blanco · Sun Dec 07, 2014 3:19 pm

TamJeff wrote:Florida.

When I am done, I typically clean the tower with a soapy rag and then give it a coat of lemon pledge. It 'wets' the crazed anodized and makes it blend in better. After awhile, you don't notice the difference. I recently worked on a tower I built about 25 years ago on a Grady White and it still looked like brand new. Guy said all he did was keep it washed with soap/water and give it the pledge treatment once/month during season.

The polished pipe does it worse, but it does not affect the corrosion resistance of the anodized. Still, overall, it becomes unnoticeable and the heat zones from the welds craze some as well. The smoke from the welding wipes right off if you catch them still warm, with dry paper towel that doesn't have nylon strand in them.

If you work with anodized, or around boats in general, naptha is a staple. I keep a repurposed rubbing alcohol bottle with the squirt top full of naptha near my bench at all times. It will take the tape residue, china marker etc right off. As I pull the tape off, I use the balled up sticky tape to 'snag' and pull off the tape that gets left on the pipe and then wipe the rest off with the naptha rag.

That tower is a bastard one-off born of a bunch of different expectations/limitations. Customer supplied a photo and what I built looks nothing like it. I was glad he liked it after all that.