I have bought a cheap pipe bender from a surplus store.

Whilst the tool itself is good quality, the instructions are very
poory translated into English.

I know how the thing works and it produces some nice looking bends but
one of the instructions is confusing:

"Please utmost ensure copper is sufficient temper"

Does this mean I should be heating the tubing with a blowlamp before
bending?

sponix

On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 14:18:35 GMT, (Sponix) wrote:

I have bought a cheap pipe bender from a surplus store.

Whilst the tool itself is good quality, the instructions are very
poory translated into English.

I know how the thing works and it produces some nice looking bends but
one of the instructions is confusing:

"Please utmost ensure copper is sufficient temper"

Does this mean I should be heating the tubing with a blowlamp before
bending?

sponix


It shouldn't be necessary if the pipe is reasonably new. You can also
wipe a small amount of grease on the dies to reduce the likelihood of
pipes crumpling.


--

..andy

Sponix wrote:

"Please utmost ensure copper is sufficient temper"

Don't you just love foreign language manual translations! ;-)

Does this mean I should be heating the tubing with a blowlamp before
bending?

It is probably saying don't try bending hard wall tube with it. The
normal half hard (Table X) copper pipe should be fine. Having said that
you can still anneal the tube first if you want to make it easier to bend.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Sponix wrote in message
...
I have bought a cheap pipe bender from a surplus store.

Whilst the tool itself is good quality, the instructions are very
poory translated into English.

I know how the thing works and it produces some nice looking bends but
one of the instructions is confusing:

"Please utmost ensure copper is sufficient temper"

Does this mean I should be heating the tubing with a blowlamp before
bending?

sponix

No it just means please ensure the copper you try to bend is sufficiently
malleable to take that bend radius without cracking. That isn't going to
apply to central heating pipe if that's what you bought it for.
--
Dave Baker

On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 15:09:20 -0000, "Dave Baker" Dave
wrote:

No it just means please ensure the copper you try to bend is sufficiently
malleable to take that bend radius without cracking. That isn't going to
apply to central heating pipe if that's what you bought it for.

Yup, just to bend normal 15mm and 22mm copper pipes.

Thanks to all who replied.

sponix

In article ,
Sponix wrote:
No it just means please ensure the copper you try to bend is
sufficiently malleable to take that bend radius without cracking. That
isn't going to apply to central heating pipe if that's what you bought
it for.

Yup, just to bend normal 15mm and 22mm copper pipes.

It might struggle with 22mm - I've heard of some cheap benders breaking.
Annealing it would reduce the effort needed - but be a bore.

--
*Can atheists get insurance for acts of God? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 16:07:41 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Sponix wrote:
No it just means please ensure the copper you try to bend is
sufficiently malleable to take that bend radius without cracking. That
isn't going to apply to central heating pipe if that's what you bought
it for.

Yup, just to bend normal 15mm and 22mm copper pipes.

It might struggle with 22mm - I've heard of some cheap benders breaking.
Annealing it would reduce the effort needed - but be a bore.

It seems quite robust so I'll give it a go and see what happens. Works
fine on 15mm and does a neat job.

I only need it to do 3 or 4 'hops' over adjacent pipework and it was
cheaper than buying the appropriate fittings..

sponix

In article ,
Sponix wrote:
It might struggle with 22mm - I've heard of some cheap benders breaking.
Annealing it would reduce the effort needed - but be a bore.

It seems quite robust so I'll give it a go and see what happens. Works
fine on 15mm and does a neat job.

I only need it to do 3 or 4 'hops' over adjacent pipework and it was
cheaper than buying the appropriate fittings..

Better too. Less flow restriction, and fewer joints are always a good
thing. And a very satisfying skill to acquire.

--
*Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.