Bending SS for a chiller ?

I'm making a SS chiller to go inside my kettle. I tried bending around a smaller diameter than my kettle but it started to kink. Any tips on how to bend this right-without a 3 wheel tubing bender?

It's 1/2 OD, welded SS tubing, 75 feet, that's already in a 2-3 foot coil.

I have read that if you fill the tube with water and crimp the ends before bending it will keep from collapsing.

lumpy5oh said:

I have read that if you fill the tube with water and crimp the ends before bending it will keep from collapsing.

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Not sure how well water would work, but I have used fine grain sand to bend 1" steel tubing before with great success. And all you need to do is duct tape the ends

+1 to the sand method. If you're going to put water in the tube, it needs to be a sort of brine and then frozen. That's how they make french horns and trumpets. but the sand method is easier for our uses. There are also bending springs, but I don't think that would work very well in this situation.

Go to Harbor Freight with your coil of SS tube, and "try out" the wheel bender.

Try on a test piece: fill, not so much that it bursts when bent....rem'br, volume decreases at bend. BUT fill with something HARD but water-soluble. Helluva lot easier to remove than sand. Good luck.

The harbor freight bender only goes to 3/4 diameter.
I've heard of using water & sand before. I just wasn't sure of the success or how messy it may be. With sand in SS, can you still bend ny hand? I thought it would be too hard?

I can tell you from experience, trying to bend stainless at home sucks. I tried to make a 50' coil I got from grainger smaller for use in a herms system and it was a bastard. I just put it in the recycling and will be buying some copper.

Spring tubing bender
Lowes, home depot and Harbor fright should have them.

^^great for copper, stainless not so much

Double_D said:

^^great for copper, stainless not so much

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well cant say i have used those springs...
I just borrowed this from work for my copper chiller.



a bit expensive unless you are going to be bending a few times.
used soap or the tube will kink

Double_D said:

^^great for copper, stainless not so much

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Agreed. I tried to use them to make a dip tube. The tube still collapsed more than i'd have liked.

So has anyone actually used the sand method with sucsess?

Wish I knew stainless brewing offered a pre-bent SS coil. It would have been cheaper, faster & better.

Ki-ri-n said:

Any tips on how to bend this right-without a 3 wheel tubing bender?

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so your question is essentially- how to do it the right way, but without doing it the right way?

if you figure that one out, let me know...

So has anyone actually used the sand method with sucsess?

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yes, but with copper. and salt is easier to work with than sand. bending stainless without adequate tools is difficult at best, and add the fact that most people attempting it are completely unexperienced at metalworking... your chances of success are small.

I've been thinking of making my own chiller as well, but in my searches I keep running into things like this when it comes to stainless steeel. I like that it does not oxidize like copper does but why is this so difficult to bend? I've bent smaller 1/4" tubing for brake lines before, is it any more difficult than that?

Brian

vuotto said:

I've been thinking of making my own chiller as well, but in my searches I keep running into things like this when it comes to stainless steeel. I like that it does not oxidize like copper does but why is this so difficult to bend? I've bent smaller 1/4" tubing for brake lines before, is it any more difficult than that?

Brian

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The easiest way (I think) to explain the problem with stainless steel is that it's a lot less ductile than copper. This is what makes it more difficult to bend by hand. It will want to collapse before it will make a nice bend. This is an inherent problem with all tubes, not just SS tubes. Your 1/4" brake lines have a smaller cross section which will make those tubes easier to bend by hand. However, they will still be susceptible to collapse if the bend radius is too small. Tubing benders have a channel that will support the radius of the tube as you bend it which keeps the tube from collapsing in on itself. But even still, if you look at the bend, there will still be a slight collapse of the tube on the outer radius of the bend due to the stretching of the material. The three roll tubing benders that was mentioned here support the tube on both sided of the bend thereby giving the tube a better bend. Those machines are mainly used to make continuous bends like what you would need for a chiller coil due to the fact that the tube is fed through the three rolls in a continuous fashion.

Hope that clarifies things a bit...or maybe the thoughts in my head were trying to escape faster than my fingers would allow...

That makes sense. I have a small bender with a channel for brake lines. It seems better for 90 bends than coils like a chiller needs. Using a paint can or some other cylindrical object to make a coil you won't have channels like the bender has. Its definitely cheaper to buy a chiller than kink your line and have to buy it twice.

audger said:

so your question is essentially- how to do it the right way, but without doing it the right way?

if you figure that one out, let me know...



yes, but with copper. and salt is easier to work with than sand. bending stainless without adequate tools is difficult at best, and add the fact that most people attempting it are completely unexperienced at metalworking... your chances of success are small.

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So basically what you're saying is: "I'm going to ridicule you without actually providing anything useful to the conversation, and I choose not to share any previous even unsuccessful experiences":rockin: I like your style

I built a jig to coil 50ft of stainless steel tubing. Jig materials cost about $70. Here is a link to the forum thread.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/50-foot-1-2-inch-ss-coil-300138/index12.html

Here is a link to the write up on how to build it.
http://home.comcast.net/~bkerby/DIYTubingBender.pdf
The lazy way out is to order what you want from stainlessbrewing.com. This what I would have done if they were around back then.

Good luck!

http://www.nybrewsupply.com/beer-home-brewing-equipment/wort-chillers.html

Check here a lot easy er and probably cheaper. Besides you should be using seamless tubing in stead of welded

V-Twin said:

I built a jig to coil 50ft of stainless steel tubing. Jig materials cost about $70. Here is a link to the forum thread.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/50-foot-1-2-inch-ss-coil-300138/index12.html

Here is a link to the write up on how to build it.
http://home.comcast.net/~bkerby/DIYTubingBender.pdf
The lazy way out is to order what you want from stainlessbrewing.com. This what I would have done if they were around back then.

Good luck!

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AWESOME! Thanks. I thought of doing something like that. Now I don't have to think about it too hard.

See audger, that wasn't so hard and it was helpful too!

From my experience I have found its a lot easier if you have something to bend it around, When I made mine I used a short hunk of steel pipe I had laying around (it was probably a piece of 12 inch wide pipe) no idea why I had it or where it came from but it worked great I locked it in my vise and took one end of my tubing and locked it to the pipe with a pair of vice grips, obviously I just had ot sacrifice that few inches I smashed locking a pair of vice locks on it

Check this out:

Thanks again for the help. This forums rarely disapoints :rockin:

So which method did you use?

Dr_Deathweed said:

So which method did you use?

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Looks like a DIY 3 wheel on the vice.

Yep, 3 wheel pulley locked in a bench vice. Best way to go if you DIY and don't want to pay big money.