I pack with sand, go slow, go fast, use lube/ no lube, still no luck. Fritz and myself are applying this capability to constructing all-metal bicycle sidecars for utility purposes. to get to this level of understanding, and has not been without some problems. I wanted to have the best quality bend for the least cash outlay. Mandrels being used in the process calls for a more costly bender, but will theoretically produce a higher quality bend in thinner wall tubing. I chose this method of bending because I did not want to be constrained, or even slowed down by additional steps or variables like heat, grit in tool, etc. I must make clear that we will NEVER post any of these findings as fact unless we have personally proved them out. I will continue in this, and my colleague, Fritz, and myself will post our findings as we prove them out. This is the extent of my experiments to date. 095 wall, 1' 6061 T6 with minor flattening and no wrinkles to 180 deg+. 049 wall 1' cro-mo and had even more flattening, no wrinkles, but the stuff wanted to "spring"out of place in the die and would "cripple" or kink unless I allowed zero back creep of the comp. No wrinkles but notably more flattening with same material in. + around a 3&1/2' die no wrinkles and minor flattening at bend with 1010 low carbon.
The die must be absolutely grease free and the compression element must be well lubricated at its two contact points. Both the compression element and the die contact surfaces were polished to a very smooth finish. The transition from grip area to start-of-bend was made as smooth as possible. First, the clamp area was made to hold the tube with more surface area, and the clamp was bead blasted for max grip. I had to modify the bender in several areas to bring up the bend quality. I've had excellent success with a rotary compression type bender that I got from. Heard of sand, water, even coil springs being used inside to mitigate wrinkling on the inside of the bend. I've seen bismuth and heat used with good success. Hi, Heinz here there are plenty of ways to bend tubing, some often involve filling the tube to be bent with non-compressible things. My recommendation would be to try the easiest (cold working) first, then if acceptable results are not achieved, try either of the other two (as they produce similar results).Ī. Oftentimes if you're trying to bend thin walled tubing, you can fill it with sand and TIGHTLY cap the ends before bending (no sand leakage). Annealing should be done at 775 ☏ for 2 to 3 hours followed by controlled cooling at 50 ☏ per hour down to 500 ☏, then air cool. Hot working may be done in the temperature range of 700 ☏ to 500 ☏. The alloy is notably less easy to cold form in the T 4 and T 6 tempers.
Some basic facts:Ĭold working in the O temper condition is readily performed. Each of these will provide different results (and you may be limited based on readily available apparati).
You can Cold Work, Hot Work, or Anneal and Cold Work. There are three ways to readily manipulate this material to work it. There are a couple of things you may want to know about 6061 AL. Non-profit land management - Marion, OhioĪ. Thanks in advance on any info you can give me. 2 1/2-3" inner diameter on the coil without crimping/damaging the aluminum tubing? My question is-can I bend 6061 thin wall aluminum tubing(1/2" O.D.) into a coil that would have app. I form the coil on a mold I had turned on a machine lathe. I currently make the coils out of solid 3/8" aluminum #111F rod. Previous closely related Q&A's, oldest first: 2003 The material will return to a t-6 temper within a week (age hardening aluminum alloy) watch for any (orange peeling) of the surface as this is a sign of work hardening that you want to stress relieve before you go any further. Pack with fine sand and with the radius and length of bend you shouldn't have any problems. The trick is to get it hot and let it cool in its blanket until about 100 ☏ and bend it from there. Mark: yes, the insulation that I use is just standard house fiberglass. Mark BonzerĪircraft Maintenance - Charles City, Iowa, USAĪ. Would this be fiberglass insulation like one would use in a home? And this process will allow the piece to go back to T6 without being brittle? Silly questions. I am interested in a little more detail with regards to Ed Bowe's comment about wrapping the piece in fiberglass and heating it. The bend radius for all tubing is 8" with the maximum bend being 90 degrees (.058). I have constructed a bender similar to the one in this video It is constructed from 1" and 3/4" 6061-T6 tubing. I'm currently in the process of building an ultralight aircraft called a Weedhopper Model 40.