Hi all, I'm currently refurbishing my kitchen and have to move the pipes to the other side of the room, which will entail a few bends here and there. I'm happy enough to bend the pipe on my knee with a spring, but thought I'd invest in a pipe bender for a better finish; this however is not the case. At first I bought the SF heavy duty bender, but this distorted the pipe and left 'tram-lines' down the back of it from the former. I took it back and exchanged it for the Irwin bender, only to get home, try it out and find teh exact same has happened (hopefully the photos below are visible). I also noted that the cheap Chinese-made "heavy duty bender" and the Irwin are virtually identical apart from a lick of yellow paint. Is it a case of me doing something wrong, or should I be taking this bender back to the nearest SF for a refund?
I should point out that I have never used a pipe bender before. Is the above normal, as I noticed on one or two Youtube videos I've seen, they end up with the same finish.
if you only want it to refurb your house then just keep it, you'll pay a lot more for a quality bender but its worth it for a pro who will use it day in and day out, the tram lines won't affect the water passing through its just the look thats all, and probably they'll get boxed in anyway so why bother?
Bite the bullet and invest in a blowtorch and use proper fittings at corners.. (or buy a couple of spanners and use Prestex/Conex, compression fittings)
Sometimes the quailty of the copper pipe dosen't help to achieving a goood bend, got some 15mm here I was given & it ripples badly when bending,& I'm not using a cheap pipe bender, & I always go for Yorkshire Copper Tube from Plumbebase.
Not that I know a lot about it, but the tramline to the outside right looks quite bad, and I would be worried that it might encourage splitting! Mr. HandyAndy - Really
The inside narrowing and shoulders are quite normal for any bender, not all that happy with the outer groves though, as suggested try some tube from another supplier the hardness does vary, also worth lubricating the formers with a smear of oil or wd40. Might be worth checking you do have the right straight former as Phi says, it should fit snugly around a straight bit of 15mm
Thanks all. I've double checked the former - definitely 15mm only and the groove is a decent snug fit to the pipe (from SF and B&Q - both the exact same). What I did notice is that the former is about 1mm narrower than the pipe; maybe this is what could be causing it? Nevertheless, the pipe is going to be subjected to mains pressure and as Mr. Handyandy points out, the grooves would be a cause for worry. Think I'll take this one back too; for £70 I must admit I'm somewhat disappointed. I'll stick to spring bending and fittings for now. Thanks again!
I have had this problem - sometimes I can make near perfect bends with my SFD bender, othertimes I get ridges around the bend. I cured the problem by "lubricating" the outside of the pipe with talcum powder at the point of the bend, as the cause is friction between the pipe and bender mandrel.I haven't had a bad bend since...touch wood... diymostthings
I'm happy to report that after making sure the former was far enough back at the start of bending and using a dab of lubrication [Ferrosol from Bilt Hamber, if anyone cares;I use it for working on cars - wonderful stuff, better than WD40 and smells of butterscotch ], I was able to produce some reasonable bends. Sadly, everything is now chased into the wall and/or floor, so I can't show off my beginner's handywork!
Talc is under suspicion as a dangerous substance these days maybe not for male plumbers using it on their bender or floorboards but still worth thinking about! Quote from the NHS article "According to the researchers, talc is chemically similar to asbestos" http://www.nhs.uk/news/2008/09September/Pages/Talcumpowderrisk.aspx
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