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In a prior life 6 years ago I owned an electrical equipment testing company. When my wife and I closed it and moved to southern Illinois, we ended up with some strange stuff. The other day I found a pair of 3" diameter aluminum pipes with a large stud tigwelded to one end. Perfect for bending sides. I clamped one of them to my bench, and broke out the propane torch and decided to rescue a set of cracked lacewood sides. By unbending (is that a word?) I was able to close the cross grain cracks then I glued them with CA. After the CA cured, I dampened the sides, and started bending them to shape. No problem, went like clockwork, and the CA held.
This handbending thing is really neat. I was a little reluctant to try, and had always used a bending machine sort of a modified Fox style bender.
Anyway I guess I'm rambling, but if any of you have been reluctant to try hand bending, don't be. It's easier than you would think.

Regards      Al

... and it's such an inexepensive option for the casual builder, compared to the more elaborate machines that people use. Here's my old aluminum boat seat support at the moment of its conversion into a side bender:



I didn't like the idea of using an open flame so I dragged out my old heat gun (the kind you use for removing paint) for a heat source. I've been controlling the heat by stuffing more or less steel wool into the pipe.

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D..

By the way. I don't know at what temperature it becomes a problem, but anything galvanized will put off poisonous gas when heated. I've only noticed the problem when welding, but if anyone knows for sure it could be important to anyone using electrical conduit for a bending pipe

Al

[QUOTE=A Peebels] By the way. I don't know at what temperature it becomes a problem, but anything galvanized will put off poisonous gas when heated. I've only noticed the problem when welding, but if anyone knows for sure it could be important to anyone using electrical conduit for a bending pipe

Al[/QUOTE]

Dont know Al but I imagine if youre trying to bend sides with your iron at same temp as a welding torch then youre going to have some very expensive charcoal!

Yup I think that would be a tad too warmjavascript:AddSmileyIcon('')

Al

What did I do? I clicked and dragged the icon and ended up with java script displayed.

Al