How to build a hydraulic pipe bender
The design of a hydraulic pipe bender with your own hands is presented in the video below.
It will not be difficult to build a tool of this type if you have two channels of 0.5 meters each. The following elements are included in the basis of such a device:
- hydraulic cylinder;
- stops;
- supercharger.
In addition, you also need to highlight:
- A jack that can withstand loads up to 5 tons.
- Rollers including 2-3 pieces.
- Channel - 3-4 mm.
- Thick plates.
The principle of using such a tool lies in the fact that you need to install a profiled pipe in the shoe. The required bending radius is set with a jack. When pumping up the jack, the rod rises, pressing on the roller. After setting the bending angle, you can remove the pipe. This version of the bending device is relevant when it is required to bend the pipe in one place, for example, when arranging a heating system.
The device and principle of operation of the electric pipe bender
The main load during the operation of a pipe bender with an electric drive falls on a powerful engine. It is he who transfers the rotational load to the bent element. Various nozzles are put on the rotor, the shape of which depends on the expected result.
In addition, the structure of the pipe bender includes the following details:
- frame;
- clamping devices;
- fastenings;
- control panel.
If it's a cheaper option for regular users, it usually has buttons for settings and a control panel. On industrial machines of this type, displays are installed, with the help of which the settings are made.
The main functions of the clamps are:
- reliable fixation of the workpiece;
- protect the worker from possible injury.
Fasteners also serve to hold the bent element in the desired position for work.
How to make a pipe bender with your own hands instructions
If there is an example or diagram of a pipe bender, then making a machine with your own hands will not be difficult. You must follow the appropriate sequence of actions. To make a pipe bender for a profile pipe, the following manipulations are performed:
- Gears must be placed on the shaft, as well as bearings and rings. The manufacture of shafts is entrusted to an experienced turner. If you plan to create all the details yourself, then you will need three shafts, two of which are distributed on the lower base (the channel serves), and the third is suspended on springs.
- The corresponding holes are drilled in the rings, which are needed in order to cut the thread. This thread is needed in order to attach gears to the shafts.
- The shelf for fixing the third roller is also made of a channel.
- All elements are distributed on the frame, and combined by welding or bolting.
- First of all, a frame is mounted on which the corresponding structural elements are distributed.
- The shelf is welded perpendicular to the base.
- A handle is attached to one of the shafts.
- Finally, to adjust the bending radius of the profile pipes, you need to install a hydraulic jack on the top shelf.
If you make a tool according to a template, then there will be no difficulties
To clarify some points, you should pay attention to the following factors:
- The pressure roller, located on the shelf, must be additionally fixed to it. It is also secured with dowels.
- The pressure roller is made by performing the following manipulations: a shaft is fixed on the shelf, as well as springs that are attached to pre-installed nuts. After manufacturing the shelf, it can be welded to the frame of the main device.
- To tension the chain, you need to use a magnetic corner. He will serve as the holder.
- The sprockets are fixed with dowels made from Grover.
- The handle for the drive is constructed from a steel tube.
- The jack is placed on a suspended shelf.
The design of the simplest home-made unit for bending profiled pipes is shown in the video below.
Making a simple template type pipe bender
A simple pipe bending machine can even be made from wood. Naturally, this will be a manual pipe bender, the design of which may not even include a pressure roller if it is used for thin-walled products. The template for such a device is made of a wooden board, the thickness of which must be such as to exceed the diameter of the pipe itself.
Wooden template for a simple manual pipe bender
For the convenience of work, it makes sense to be puzzled by the profiling of the template from the side of its end in order to avoid the pipe jumping off during the bending process. For these purposes, you can fold two boards, which are pre-cut along one edge, thus creating a kind of gutter. A pre-made drawing will help to avoid mistakes.
When using such a pipe bender, the template is attached to a reliable base, and an emphasis is fixed on the left side of it (for right-handers). The pipe, which needs to be bent along the required radius, is inserted between the template and the stop and carefully bent, making sure that it does not jump off the template.
Collapsible hook template
With the help of such a pipe bender, made from improvised materials, it is possible to bend along a large bending radius. It is possible to avoid the manufacture of a wooden template and simplify the fixture by replacing it with metal hooks fixed on the base, located around the circumference with the required bend radius. Such a device is convenient in that the dimensions of the bend can be changed at any time by placing the hook-stops around a circle with a different radius.
Armed with a manual winch, you can significantly expand the range of work performed due to a noticeable increase in traction for bending pipes.
The winch will help expand the functionality of the simplest manual pipe bender
How to make pipe benders of different types
The principle of operation of pipe benders is different - you can influence a pipe segment in different ways. For example, a spring-type device will help deform polymer pipes due to pressure. Segment devices will stretch them, giving curvature.
The method of manufacturing a template pipe bender is available even to a beginner. To do this, you need to accurately draw a part of the circle of the required diameter (or other type of curvature). This hemisphere or other curve is drawn on a wooden blank, as in the photo of a homemade template-type pipe bender.
The resulting part must be fixed on a stable base along the plane (wall, table).
After the template stop is ready, you need to figure out how to use this type of pipe bender. This is clear from the figure - the pipe is fixed between the template and the thrust beam.
By exposing the opposite end of a heated aluminum or thin steel billet, the desired bend is obtained. If necessary, to obtain segments of different curvature, make several suitable templates.
Types of pipe bending mechanisms
Devices that allow you to bend a steel pipe to a certain radius are divided according to the following features:
- Mobility. Pipe benders can be stationary and portable.
- Type of drive. Depending on this feature, manual, electric, hydraulic and electro-hydraulic devices are distinguished.
- Method of influence. The tubular product is bent under the influence of rolling, winding, rolling and rod.
Before you make a pipe bender at home, you need to understand how the device affects the workpiece, and familiarize yourself with each process separately.
Running in
This method involves the following steps: one end of the tubular product is pressed against a fixed template and the pipe is rolled around it by means of pressure rollers.
winding
In this type of device, a movable template is provided. A pipe is directly wound on it, which passes between the template and a special stop located at the beginning of the bend.
Crossbow type pipe bender
Such a device is equipped with two fixed rollers and a template mounted on a movable rod. When the rod is pressed into the middle of a certain section, the pipe bends.
Rolling
The design is made on the basis of two supporting and one central roller. Such a three-roll mechanism helps to obtain the required bending radius as a result of pressing the central roller on the pipe, the position of which determines the bending radius. This makes it possible to call this type of pipe bender universal, since all other types bend the pipe according to a certain pattern.
A pipe bender operating on the principle of winding is quite difficult to make at home, so industrial enterprises are engaged in the production of such mechanisms. In the case of using a crossbow pipe bender, it is worth remembering that the impact of the rod on the tubular product can cause the material to break. Therefore, these mechanisms are not suitable for bending products with thinner walls. The rolling device has no significant drawbacks; it is used in the factory production of bends.
The design of the machine for bending tubular products of self-made can be varied. Choose the right device according to the required bending radius
In addition, it is worth studying the recommendations for choosing a device, as well as taking into account the main parameters of the pipes used: diametrical section and wall thickness.
Device for manual benders
Edge benders, with some resemblance to sheet benders, have a fundamental difference - the height of the shelf usually does not exceed 5 ... 20% of their length. A smaller value corresponds to a flared inner edge. When bending, there is no such limitation, which predetermines noticeable structural changes in the compared devices.
The first of them concerns the length of the working area of the flanging - for manual hemming benders, it can be small, since the height of the side and the radius of curvature do not change. Accordingly, portable manual edge benders are produced, moving which along a pre-marked flanging line, we obtain the required profile.
With a large length of the edge formation zone, the process should be performed simultaneously. In such cases, the edge bender is more similar to the sheet bender, differing, in fact, only in the way the workpiece is pressed.
Consider the first version of the device. Portable manual bead bender for gradual bead shaping includes:
- Two handles, and one of them can be movable, or both.
- Lever reinforcement system to create the required flanging force.
- Working jaws with a profile that matches the dimensions of the edge. Typically, the manufacturer completes a manual edge bender with a set of several jaws and the most common edge height and radius of curvature in practice when moving from the edge to the main plane.
- Adjustable travel stop: most often this is a screw spline screw that has a thrust thread.
For ease of use, the handles are rubberized, which prevents the operator's hand from slipping during the application of effort.
The second variant of a portable manual edge bender is a roller one, where the sliding friction of the jaws on the workpiece is replaced by rolling friction when the working rollers rotate. In this case, the shaping force is significantly reduced, but the tool turns out to be less versatile, since there is only one pair of rollers, and it will not be possible to change the edge formation parameters, except by replacing a pair of rollers, which is quite laborious. In addition, roller benders in most cases fail to perform internal flanging along small radii.
The main disadvantage of manual portable edge benders is their low accuracy: when moving the tool along the uneven line of the future edge, an error gradually accumulates, which at the end of the operation can reach a millimeter or more. This is unacceptable in auto body repair, so the quality of the bead formation is determined only by the experience of the performer.
Do-it-yourself manual hemming
Let us dwell on the option of designing and manufacturing a manual edge bender with simultaneous obtaining of an internal or external contour along the entire length of a pre-marked workpiece. The general view of the device is shown in the figure. Such a manual bender can be used not only in a car service, but also in the production of roofing, the manufacture of tin ventilation ducts and other spatial sheet metal products.
The dimensions of a home-made hand-operated edge bender are determined depending on the largest dimensions of the workpiece for which the flanging is performed. For example, for large-sized products, it is more expedient to build a table made of wood or plywood, on which to mount the bender, in other cases, the structure is welded from channels and sheet metal.
The design of the manual edge bender is designed for sequential execution of two transitions:
- clamping the workpiece with a clamp and lower clamp;
- flanging along a given contour by turning the handle with a punch located on it.
It is usually recommended to perform a welded version of such an assembly, but this is impractical: the parameters of the flanging curve may change, and it is no longer possible to change the punch. Therefore, taking into account the small forces that occur during deformation, it is better to make a collapsible punch, which is a collection of individual modules, characterized by their radius of curvature and edge height.
The fastening of such punches on the beam is carried out using bolts (of course, all seats must be designed and made with the greatest possible accuracy).
The edge formation itself is performed after the workpiece is securely fixed between the upper and lower clamps (the latter provides smooth clamping due to the spring mounted on the rod in the upper plane). The combination of the two halves of the flanging die is carried out by moving the support bracket along the mating surface of the limiters, which act as guide elements of the manual edge bender.
By changing the configuration of the punch modules, it is possible to perform flanging not only at a straight line, but also at any other angle - up to 110 ...
Pinch roller benders
More complex in design is a manual pipe bender that uses a pressure roller. For the manufacture of such a device, you can use both wood and metal.
For pipes made of soft materials (for example, copper), wood rollers are the best option, since they do not cause metal deformation. Such videos are not difficult to make at home, if you use photos or drawings of such devices, which are widely available on the Internet.As a manufacturing material, you can use thick boards or several layers of plywood.
Drawing of a pipe bender with a pressure roller
A home-made pipe bender of a similar design, which is based on rollers - movable (clamping) and fixed, allows you to bend round pipes that differ even in significant diameters.
In order to understand that such a device is simple in design and use, just look at its photo or drawing. Depending on what loads are expected for this type of pipe bender, the base for it is made of metal or durable plywood. The U-shaped holder, on which the central and pressure rollers will be placed, is made of metal.
Relative to the axis of the central roller, securely fixed on the base, such a holder must be able to rotate. On the reverse side of the central roller, a handle is attached to the holder, which is a lever, so the generated force directly depends on its length. Such a lever pipe bender allows you to perform operations with various pipe bending radii.
Many are wondering if it is possible to make a winding-type pipe bender with your own hands. Naturally, at first it is desirable to study the drawing or photo of such a device, on which there is no emphasis on the base. The design of this type of pipe bender is based on two pulleys, a frame with a lever and a pressure roller, and a reliable base. Bending using such a device is carried out due to the fact that the pipe, placed in the groove of the fixed pulley and clamped with a clamp, is wrapped around the template using a lever and a movable roller.
Pipe bender for soft pipes for two different bending radii
For small and soft products (aluminum or copper), a homemade pipe bender is suitable, which allows bending with two different radii. Photos of such a device are easy to find on the Internet. This pipe bender uses one pinch roller, and the template is made simultaneously with two radii on one plate. Naturally, for each bending option, the pipe bender handle must be reinstalled, for which two holes are provided on its base.
How to assemble ET yourself
If desired, you can assemble a pipe bender with an electric drive with your own hands, you just need to follow a series of sequential steps.
At the initial stage, it is worth deciding what the frame of the device will be. You can assemble such a design from rectangular shaped pipes with wall thickness in 3 mm.
At the end of the profile, 3 cm from the end, make a hole with a cross section equal to the dimensions of the axis.
The next step in assembling an electric pipe bender with your own hands includes several steps:
- A control lever with a movable wheel that drives the belt is mounted on the frame.
- Install the stationary wheel.
- Fix the falling shaft. A pulley with a belt drive from the engine is placed in the end part of the shaft.
- At the second end of the bed, a star is placed for the drive gear.
- The second shaft is attached last.
Next, you can start trimming the profile. The degree of trimming of this part will depend on the desired bending angle, taking into account a margin of 5 cm. Everything that is superfluous can be cut off with a hacksaw.
The axle on which the wheel and lever will be installed is easy to make yourself:
- you will need two steel plates with a width equal to the diameter of the axle and a thickness of 5 mm;
- having put together a steel pipe and these two plates, it is necessary to weld the structure.
Now you can take on the assembly of the entire mechanism.
You can do this in a few steps:
- The finished frame from the profile must be securely fixed in a vice.
- Now we install the axis in the holes made in advance.
- We make docking of an axis with the handle and a wheel.
- Tighten the wheel securely with a bolt.
- At the end, we mount the retainer with a hairpin.
Since the actuation of the pipe bender assembled by oneself was conceived by connecting to the mains, the last thing to do is to connect the electric drive to the machine. This fixture will cause the shaft to rotate.
Thus, we can say that electric type pipe benders are distinguished by their efficiency and versatility. In addition, the ability to quickly perform work makes them indispensable in industrial enterprises and when performing work at a professional level.
Varieties of electric pipe benders
The mechanism of operation for electric pipe benders may differ. Let's take a look at some of these products.
winding machines. In this case, a special shaft is installed on the device, which is rolled along a pipe fixed in the machine, thereby creating a bend of the desired configuration.
Rolling pipe benders. Such devices have paired rollers. The mechanism of action of such equipment is called mandrelless. The peculiarity of such pipe benders lies in the limited bending angle of the products, which coincides with the diameter of the fixed shaft. Usually, a set of various rollers is included with equipment of this type, designed to increase the capabilities of the device.
Products with a rolling mechanism. In such pipe benders, three rhythmically working rollers are installed. Equipment of this type is often used in the manufacture of decorative ornaments from shaped pipes.
With extrusion principle of action. This is the most common type of product, shaped like a crossbow. In this case, the pipe is fixed on both sides, and the bend is made by extrusion. The fold configuration depends on the type of nozzle. However, working on such equipment takes a lot of time.
Stationary type pipe benders
For stationary equipment, it is required to allocate a separate place, since they differ in large weight and size. In such ET models, a strong large frame is provided that supports a fairly powerful engine.
Such devices can work with pipe products of various types and sizes. In particular, they can process profiled steel pipes with thin walls, products with a large section and thick walls used in high-pressure water mains.
Compared to stationary devices, hand-held ETs are more limited in their capabilities, although they can also be very useful for their purposes.
Pipe bender stationary step by step instructions
If you plan to independently make a greenhouse from steel pipes, then you will need to acquire not just an ordinary pipe bender, but a reliable product. After all, with this approach, you will need to bend more than a dozen profile pipes. To make the design of the greenhouse neat and beautiful, you need to use a stationary pipe bender.
Before proceeding with the manufacture of the greenhouse, you need to take care of the presence of the appropriate tool for bending profile products. You will need the following elements to design a stationary pipe bender:
- rod for 25;
- 6 bearings;
- channel.
You will also need a welding machine, with which all the components will be connected. A step-by-step instruction for making a stationary pipe bender is as follows:
- Bearings are welded to the base (channel), which are interconnected by a shaft in the form of a steel pipe of the appropriate diameter.
- To prevent the shaft from being too close to the base, the bearings should be welded onto cuts of a rectangular pipe 5 cm each.
- In order to deliberately make a unit that could regulate the bending radius, the base must be made of two channels connected by curtains, as seen in the photo above.
- Two shafts with bearings are located at the same height, and the third (central) is welded with a rectangular tube 15-20 cm higher.
- An additional tube must be welded to the upper shaft, to which the handle will be attached. This shaft will be driven by muscular force.
- The handle is welded to the upper shaft, after which the resulting product can be checked for operation.
When installing a profile tube of any size, you should adjust the radius of the final bend. This can be done using a jack located under the base, on which one of the shafts is fixed. Having adjusted the required bending radius, the handle rotates. The result is high-quality curved tubes. The advantage of a pipe bender is the ability to bend materials of any size and diameter.
Of the shortcomings, only the possibility of operation in one place can be noted.
It is important to understand that such a device can be used for any need. For the manufacture of such a device, an investment of no more than 500 rubles will be required.
You need to buy only 6 bearings, and all other elements can be found in the household of each master.
Crossbow pipe bender step by step design instructions
The crossbow pipe bender got its name because it resembles the shape of a hand crossbow. The cost of crossbow devices is about 10 thousand rubles. To save on the purchase of such a unit, it is recommended to make it yourself.
The photo shows two options for crossbow devices for bending pipes. The first option is a factory design, and the second is a home-made machine. The difference between these two machines is significant, since the factory version is made of steel with a size of no more than 2 mm, while metal 3-4 mm thick was used for home-made. This means that a home-made unit is made not just to be, but for everyday use.
Feeling the difference, each master will wish to acquire a crossbow pipe bender by making it on his own. The disadvantage of this version of the pipe bender is the fact that it allows you to get a pipe bend at only one point. This is due to the fact that the device is equipped with a fixed shoe. This option is used for round pipes when you need to get a certain bending radius in one place.
To design such a device, you need a channel and a hydraulic jack. For the jack, a special shelf is made in which it is installed. In the upper working part, two rollers made of steel pipe are mounted between two channels. The distance between the rollers and the nickel of the jack must be the same in order to be able to get even and neat bends.
How to make template type devices
And how to make a pipe bender at home? The simplest rolling mechanism can be made of wood. You can make such a pipe bender with your own hands, thereby saving money. Bending of thin-walled pipes is carried out without a pressure roller. To make a template, it is enough to take a board with a thickness slightly exceeding the diameter of the tubular product.
The profiling of the template from the end will make the process more convenient, this will prevent the workpiece from slipping when bent. Another solution to this problem can be two boards folded together with sawn edges, which form some kind of gutter.
The structure must be firmly fixed on the frame, and to the left of it, fix the stop
The workpiece to be bent is inserted into the free gap between the stop and the template and they begin to carefully bend it, controlling its position in the template. Such a pipe bender can be made from improvised materials, but with its help a large radius bend is obtained
Sometimes the wooden template is replaced with metal hooks, which are firmly fixed on the plane along the established circle. By changing the location of the hooks, you can change the bending radius at any time. The addition of a hand winch significantly expands the range of work.
Such a pipe bender can be made from improvised materials, but with its help a large radius bend is obtained. Sometimes the wooden template is replaced with metal hooks, which are firmly fixed on the plane along the established circle. By changing the location of the hooks, you can change the bending radius at any time. The addition of a hand winch significantly expands the range of work.
