1/2" stainless tube supply adn bending question

I see a lot on nice stands that have stainless tubing. I'm wondering where you guys get your supplies from and what you use to do the bending. I've heard stainless can be a bit of a bear and doesnt bend as easy as copper. I also heard that the bending tools meant for copper dont work for stainlees.

A lot of people get their tubing from McMaster (http://www.mcmaster.com/#8989k98/=ai2r8f) it is very reasonably priced for 50 feet. As for coiling it you will have to get input from someone else but I am also interested because i am thinking about adding a permanent immersion chiller to my boil kettle.

chromados

yeah i think grianger had prices pretty reasonable as well. How about bending? Anyone with a sculpture care to chime in?

When you go shopping for SS tubing you want to use .035" or .049" wall thickness, less than that is difficult/impossible to bend without a special bender. The welded, mill finish type 304 or 316 SS tubing is what you are looking for, seamless tubing is overkill as interior finish is the same. Watch Ebay for 400 series benders by Rigid Tool, or Imperial tube benders, these are the lowest cost, if you have too much cash then go for the Swagelok benders. If you check with a plumbing supply company they may have SS tubing in stock, it will come in a 20' length so take a tube cutter when you pick it up. The "El Cheapo" tube cutters from HF will not last long with SS tube so look for a Reed,Rigid Tool, or Swagelok 308 tube cutter with SS blade if you plan to do much.
As I have instructed the new hires that have not bent tubing before, I remind them that if finished work is in left hand use the "L" mark, if the finished work is in right hand use "R" mark, for a 45 it does not matter which direction it was measured from. Last item is there is a "0" mark on both the arm and the center mandrel, line these up before you start the bend with center mark on appropriate spot, this prevents a shift in the final dimension between bends.

As an example .049" is the minimum wall thickness recommended by Ridgid hand tubing benders unless you use a mandel bender costing $400 to over $550.
For 1/2" SS tubing the Ridgid 400 seies model 408 for 1/2" works great;
http://www.google.com/products/cata...og_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDMQ8wIwAg#
Apply oil to the shoe before each bend prevents flattening of the outside tubing radius due to excessive dry pulling. Above 1/2" starting at 5/8" requires their geared racheting benders. Price increases follow tubing size increases trust me.

I just put the last bend in my sculpture, literally minutes ago so I'm done with my bender. I bought a Swagelok MS-HTB-8 on ebay like the one in the link below. You can sell it for pretty much what you'd have into it when you're done using it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Swagelok-MS...pe_Benders&hash=item2560344493#ht_1058wt_1139

If you decide to go this route PM me and we'll work something out. The last 2 I had in my watch history both went for over 200 bucks, the one in the link is brand new so I'll bet it'll fetch 250-300 with a day and a half left in the bidding.

Here's an example from my rig, it's very easy to use and bends beautifully.

I haven't order my tubing yet but planning to buy it soon. Anyway, in my research this is the best price I have seen for 1/2" Stainless Steel tubing.

http://www.nybrewsupply.com/products/tubing-steel.php

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

lanvp said:

I haven't order my tubing yet but planning to buy it soon. Anyway, in my research this is the best price I have seen for 1/2" Stainless Steel tubing.

http://www.nybrewsupply.com/products/tubing-steel.php

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Your not going to bend that .020" wall thickness 1/2" SS tubing in any hand bender without spending big dollars for a mandrel bender.
No way with a hand bender unless collapsed and wrinkled tubing is your planned end results.

BrewBeemer said:

Your not going to bend that .020" wall thickness 1/2" SS tubing in any hand bender without spending big dollars for a mandrel bender.
No way with a hand bender unless collapsed and wrinkled tubing is your planned end results.

Click to expand...

Good to know. Thanks for the heads-up!

Cheers!

Check with the Ferguson outlet in Salem, Or, they might have SS tubing in stock, otherwise you might have to order and wait a day or two for it to come down from Portland on the truck. Look for 1/2" OD X .035 wall 304L welded tubing, or 316L X .035 welded tubing with mill finish. If you can wait till first weekend in Feb, I could loan you a bender, cutter, reamer for your project when I am home on the next R&R cycle.

I've made simple bends in SS tubing using a circle die cut from mdf or ply and a cheater bar. Bolt the circle to the bench and make a stop to hold the tubing from moving and use the cheater bar for leverage (I used a piece of tubing with an ID about the ss tubings od. Bend slowly until you get the degree of bend you want. The circle of ply should be the radius of the desired bend. That is how I made this:



By the way, that is my rotating racking arm for my sanke fermenter.

haze

do spring benders work for SS?

They would to some extent if you could physically make the bend. Ive tried and failed.

I guess I need to hit the gym, did not think about how strong SS is.

Not trying to threadjack here but I have the same question. I am finalizing my designs for a HERMS system and was planning on making the HERMS coil from 1/2" SS tubing. I understand how to bend 90's, 45's etc, but how would one go about making a coil of a specific diameter with SS? My current design calls for a coil with a 9" diameter, is this possible by hand? All of the other bends near each fitting I had planned to use a bender with a 1-1/2" bend radius, but the coil has always stumped me.

Here is the coil:


And the whole HERMS HEX: