Bending Irons

[needsmorecowbel]

Has anyone made their own improvised bending iron or wood steamer? I'd prefer to not buy one and am in need of a clever shortcut.

Stu

[DarwinStrings]

pbend.jpg (93.1 KiB) Viewed 16635 times

Jim

[rocket]

Pretty high tech Jim, not everyone has access to all that fangled quipment

[Taffy Evans]

My second attempt at this post.

Just pics this time

[kiwigeo]

God, I wouldn't be hanging around that iron wearing my backless leather chaps...would end up with a few extra holes in the things

[Lillian]

Stu, if you don't want to use an open flame you can do the same thing with an industrial soldering iron or a heating element. I have an electric charcoal lighter, non-ceramic, in my project pile.

Martin, if you insist on wearing those backless chaps, you're going to get branded one of these days.

[needsmorecowbel]

This is a really cool one...http://soundsalon.com/Make_a_Bending_Iron.html

The Guy uses a barbeque ignition prong and basically takes it all apart and uses it to heat the metal pipe.

[needsmorecowbel]

Great idea Lillian i guess i could always just add a small piece of metal to put over the soldering iron in order to make sure the whole width of the timber can be bent at once. Unless i can find a fairly long industrial soldering iron. hmmmm

[jjh]

I use a hot air paint stripper in a piece of 2" stainless tube

[WaddyT]

I made one with replacement truck tail pipe section, inserted an electric charcoal starter and plugged it into a router speed controller, popped in a grill thermometer, and it works great. Can't post pics yet - post count, I assume.

P1010574 (Large) (Small).JPG (35.21 KiB) Viewed 16585 times

It was a size thing. The forum doesn't accept standard sizes if the size happens to be taller than it is wide, even though the numbers are still within the parameters.

[liam_fnq]

Unfortunately this is one of those situations where we as Australians suffer from a serious lack of options.

I'm yet to find an electric BBQ starter and/or router control available in Aus. To run an imported 110v set up will require a pretty hefty transformer.

I use a gas burner in a pipe. I already had the burner for work so it seemed logical.

A homemade electric pipe is always an option but you'd want to know what you're doing. Electricity + metal pipe = possible ouchies.

[Puff]

Downunder solution - the guts of an electric hot air paint stripping gun with rheostat salvaged from a dumped fan or column heater.
If you could get your hands on one of those old bar heaters with a rheostat a little bit of sawing and rewiring would do the trick nicely.

[Lillian]

What about the heating element to a stove or a toaster over? Or even an electric hot water heater. Just make sure that the element doesn't have to be submersed to work.

I'm yet to find an electric BBQ starter and/or router control available in Aus. To run an imported 110v set up will require a pretty hefty transformer.

A homemade electric pipe is always an option but you'd want to know what you're doing. Electricity + metal pipe = possible ouchies.

Would you be able to put it on a rheostat and dial it down? And yes, Sparky is your friend with these shopmade jigs.

[Taffy Evans]

The picture [above] of the iron I have used, and I have one larger, I have used since 1975, or so. Both have coiled heating elements from a room radiator and controllable oven thermostats that sets the heat where I like it. I also have safety protection on the power system too.

Martin, I didn't get my Harley until 1995, so backless chaps were not a consideration back then.

[christian]

Hi,

If you want a cheap and cheerful bending iron suggestion, use a high wattage clothes iron, yip a clothes iron.
make sure you take off the flimsy base cover so the steel plate is revealed, weld a piece of pipe to it, you may need a buffer piece of steel to give you clearance for tight bends. you could tap and thread the base and screw the pipe to it if you dont have access to a welder.
to fix it to your bench screw mount it to some ply or put it in your vice.
I still use the one i made 10yrs ago for my cutaway bends you can control the heat really well with the dial setting.
I spray the pipe with water to check that its at the desired heat, when it evaporates almost instantly you are good to go.

Cheers,

Christian

[Puff]

A rather deluxe heating element is the Watlow Firerod cartridge heater. Watlow have Ossie and NZ agents - Google.

[Insomnomaniac]

A rather deluxe heating element is the Watlow Firerod cartridge heater. Watlow have Ossie and NZ agents - Google.

http://www.watlow.com/products/heaters/ht_cart.cfm

http://www.watlow.com/contactus/saleslo ... m?region=6

[needsmorecowbel]

will give them a call, cheers