Bending Aluminum

[Leatherneck]

I need to bend some aluminum tube for my radiator lines. Anything need to be done differently then doing steel tubing?

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I need to bend some aluminum tube for my radiator lines. Anything need to be done differently then doing steel tubing?

Yes!

(Over-kill opinion) There are several things that could affect the bends such as the AL material itself; e.g., it's temper, thickness of the material and the inside dia. of the bend. W/o knowing what dia. and bend angle, dia. of the bending mandrel, et al I can't help on that. I also didn't keep any bend tables especially ones for tube.

Heating the tube like some do with metal I don't think it recommended as the control of the heat applied might be very hard to do.

Lee

[CentralWAbaja]

http://www.mandrelbends.com/mandrel-ben ... gauge.html

Or of course you could do AN HOSE haha take that Lee!!! Been a while since I took that shot haha

[Ol'fogasaurus]

http://www.mandrelbends.com/mandrel-ben ... gauge.html

Or of course you could do AN HOSE haha take that Lee!!! Been a while since I took that shot haha

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=al ... &FORM=IGRE

Try this: https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... ajaxhist=0

You should be able to find what you want here. The tables used to be propriety to companies that made and bent AL and based on the government specs but big business, in order to make as much money than could, took this info and used it in foreign countries to make more money by having cheaper labor rather than to have it done here. One of the reasons foreign countries are trying to get into our servers is for a lot of this information.

At one time I could have gotten fired just for taking a page and copying it or take the book from the library to my desk.

CWB, "AN" means "Army Navy" when talking about parts in general... they are an identification of the spec source. "AND" spec parts means "Army Navy Defense", "Mil" specs means Military Specification, "NAS" means "National Aero Space" which are/were supposed to be protected specifications. The -10, for example, means 10/16" or 5/8". These fastener specs are usually in 1/16ths or, less common, 1/32nds.

There is a lot of coding in the part number for example: The old AN960 washer part number could be AN960PD10L. Translated is means an "AN960" part, the "PD" stands for plating and the "L" stands for lightweight (thin) washer. This part is now (or when I last worked with them) NAS1149 (again as I remember). With the part number coding the PN could pass 15 digits and I seem to remember one going to 20 or 21 digits.

Now that we are going more metric I am not sure anymore what the base is as we were just getting into metric when I retired.

Lee

[risk]

I would buy some straight sections of tubing, and some bends.. weld up what you need. I have not had much luck bending alum. tubing unless it's very thin.

Like CWB said, this is an excellent supplier.
http://www.mandrelbends.com/

[CentralWAbaja]

HAHA Alright Lee!

I shall resort to the alternative then.... You could use aluminum fittings and braided hoses commonly used in the racing world and sometimes referenced as "AN" in the generic term. I chose this method and it has worked out fine so far (3 years in light use getting groceries and such in my car). I also chose lightweight hose vs the braided stainless version that most commonly thought of when racers refer to AN hose and fittings. I did this to keep weight down for stresses on the radiator connection itself. And it is a little easier on the minimum bend radius needed for its stainless braided counterpart.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I understand that the term "AN" is being miss-used because most don't really understand just what is going on. When they were first used in the hot-rodding forms it was from Military people who worked with them hence the carry on of the basic part number.

Steel braided hose I also do not recommend and for several reasons.

One being that they were designed mostly for short lengths and they also have rubber hose inside (as I remember) which can harden or fail but with the braided steel covering you can't do a squeeze test to check the condition of the hose.

If you look at long runs of braided line but clamped at regular interval is that the weight of the hose can cause the line to start to sag between supports and you get potential areas where air pockets can form.

They also don't hold form for long so again, the weight can cause them to sag.

The braided part of the hose, can start to fail and create broken strands that you can snag your hands or other things on. Usually it happens at the ends or the supports.

As CWB did say, the bend radius of the braided hose is pretty large getting worse as the dia. increases.

IOW, braided lines are great for show bug not long for go.

I did spend a lot of time listening to oral arguments (sometimes very loud arguments too) at my drafting table on things like this and other things so I got info that a lot of people don't have which did come to use before I retired.

Lee