Well, here you go.Īs you can see, these are pretty catastrophic failures above, but I did have to set the heat gun to 600☌ to get such drastic results quickly. I mentioned earlier that I would show what happens when you overheat the tube. For the photos I used the Eiskoffer, as it has a handy metal grid included for this purpose. Likewise, it helps to secure the mandrels to the surface for this, although it's not essential. It goes without saying that you should use a mandrel designed for your tubing size using the wrong one can be either less effective or damage the curve of the bend. As with freehand, heat the tube until flexible, but this time instead of bending manually, carefully bend it around the mandrel of choice and hold it there until cooled and firm. A number of kits exist, ranging from simple setups with a few mandrels, a cutter, chamfer tool, and a silicon insert, all the way to the frankly ludicrous Alphacool Eiskoffer with its 3D bending jigs and numerous accessories. They're particularly helpful if trying to do multiple 90 degree bends with a consistent radius, something not easy to do freehand. Whilst not essential (when we started using acrylic tubes these kits didn't exist), bending mandrels can make the process of producing accurate bends much easier. Once the tube has cooled you can safely remove the insert, et voilà: You have a formed piece of hardline tube. It will remain hot and flexible for a while, so you can either hold still or splash with a little water to cool it faster (it's perfectly safe). If you're going with free-hand bends, remove the tube from the heat and slowly position it into the shape you require. This point can sometimes take a bit of practice, especially if working at higher temperatures, as it can arrive pretty fast. The tube will start to feel a bit bendy also. Keep heating until you see very small bubbles beginning to flow from the water around the insert. It's important to heat the tubing evenly, so rotate it and also move it back and forth so that the heat doesn't concentrate in one small patch. I like to work with this temperature, as it's close to the glass point, which means you can heat with less of a worry of overdoing it - I'll show you later what happens if you overheat the tubing! If you're looking to grab a new heat gun, be sure to have a look at our Toolbox Guide! Place the heat gun on your surface, facing up, and then hold the tube over the nozzle, about 3-5cm above. If your heat gun has temperature control, set it to between 130-150☌ (or a low/medium setting) if it doesn't then you're just going to have to be quite diligent. Push the insert into the tube, and we're ready to start heating.
#TUBE BENDING JIG FULL#
The simplest way to do this is with some water and a bit of dish soap I like to keep a dish full of water nearby for this reason. From experience, I fully recommend lubing that thing up, because once inside the tube it can be a pain to remove, especially if you have more than one bend in a run. You need to use one rated the same size as the internal diameter of your tubing. This piece of equipment is 100 percent vital to the process, as it stops the tube from collapsing. First up, though, is inserting the silicon bending cord. This involves heating the tubing until it's reached its glass-transition temperature.
#TUBE BENDING JIG HOW TO#
We've got a prepared length of tube, so now let's have a look at how to do the actual bends.
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