exhaust steel tube bending

[JonE]

I've got lots of good advice on the best way to do this with heat and dry sand, but just wondered has anyone actually tried the old fashioned plumbers copper pipe spring benders for something 1 1/8" OD  and 1.5mm thick (c 16swg)... for gentle bends? Will they work?

[Jack in the Box]

Jon,

My wife and I successfully bent a length of 1 1/4” OD steel tube for the exhaust on our EA replica. We used a plumber’s spring on a rope, a short scaffold pole and a length of kitchen worktop with radiused corners. We tethered the worktop to a telegraph pole in our garden and made a strap to hold the tube onto the worktop while we bent it. Lots of trial and error, but we were pleased with the result.

Alan

[JonE]

excellent news. So you didn't use heat too, Alan? or you did?

[Jack in the Box]

No heat. All just bent cold. Over bending and then backing off a bit to recover the spring.
Alan

[Duncan Grimmond]

If you combine heat with a spring it will lose its temper (and you will too)...