anyone ever heard of this?

something my neighbor came up with, really old guy across the street.

said he built a chopper frame like that in the 60's

building a bird cage stand for my dad.

just wondeing.

 

It will work. It is an old school way of making bends. I will see what I can find for you when i get out of work.

 

Works just fine. You have to pre heat the sand in the oven though. To get out all the moisture. If you don't, you could build up lots of steam and pressure. Then you've got a problem.

 

It basically just keeps the tubes shape while bending so it doesn't collapse. But to answer your question, yes, I have heard of people doing this as well back in the day.

 

That is how they make headers on old school race cars. You have to make sure you get it packed very tight and the sand must be perfectly dry or you will be in deep ****.

 

Yup. I had some aluminum tube I needed to form into a coil for a water/air intercooler ice box. Taped off the ends with electrical tape, filled tight with sand and bent it around a piece of steel 4" exhaust tube. Worked perfect, no kinking.

 

why does the sand need to be perfectly dry?

 

I'm wondering that too. I assume they mean that moisture would turn into air, which would turn into high pressures, but... so? Its not like the pressures would get anywhere near high enough to burst though anything but the thinnest of pipe?

Or am I missing something?

 

I have used this method for bending tube . Heating the tube must be done carefully you do need a vent hole in the tube . if it is hot enough you can lay the sand ( i used silica sand) on a piece of cardboard too make sure it's dry . You need a rose bud tip for your torch .when heating the tube heat applcation must be done evenly , not too much , not enough and you won't get what you want . it's a learning process . back in the day some of the top frame builders did it this way I think Pat foster was one of the last guy's doing it this way . you will need some sort of jig to bend your piece around also large pipes/drums/round stock/car rims/go kart rims . good luck be safe P/S have a buddy help you bend/hold torch/ put out fire call EMT'S . Oh one more thing do not stand in front of your tube plug you can weld one end closed use a a wooded plug for the other tamp down the sand with a piece of bar stock again safety safety there's alot of PSI in the process if not done right .

 

Or you can forget the heat altogether, pack the tube with sand, and bend it with a $20 Harbor freight bender.

This method keeps the tube from kinking, there's a youtube video somewhere of a guy doing it this way. Makes a good bend, just takes a lot of extra time. But I'd say the bender would be cheaper than the gas for heating the tube.

 

i tried it once. It made a big mess and made me mad.. I'm sure theres a way out there to do it right, but for all the pissing around it takes mandrel bends are worth every penny!

 

It works fantastic, just make sure the sand is uber dry and packed very tight. Also, when you bend the tube you need to refill with sand as the metal stretched and created more volume.

 

the sand trick also works well on a good tube bender like my pro 105.you can bend very thin tube.i did some 035 1 inch.pack it tight make your bend and your done.