I have a job coming up and would like to use my own bender for it (JD squared model 2 manual) I know several H-T members have the same bender, have any of you tried bending aluminum with it? The job calls for 1 3/4" x .125 6061 tubing. I need to bend (4) 75 degree bends. Any pre-heating required? I don't want to mar it or crack it. Thanks.

 

Im not familiar with your bender, but from my experience 6061 will tear before you get the bend your looking for. If your gonna try preheating be sure and use the appropriate temple stick it is too difficult to tell how hot the aluminum is by just how it looks. I hope this is helpful to ya and good luck.

 

I have some 6061 x .125 2" tubing that is bent into 90's that I purchased from Global Source, and I have seen other 6061 tubing bent, so I know it can be done, I am just wondering if it has to be mandrel bent. I don't really want to purchase the tubing and find out I can't bend it myself.

 

right on mang good luck

 

You can do it on a 6" radius or larger. Anneal the tube to a T3 at a minimum.

 

alright! thanks, I think my dye is a 7 or 7.5 radius, so I'll warm the tube up a bit and go for it.

 

You can't just heat it up a bit.

For Oxy/Acytl: Soot the tube completely, then evenly heat it with a torch until you burn the soot from the surface. You have to have someone constantly rotating the tube and you have to be very careful not to overheat the tube.

However, our experience with doing this has been hit or miss with tube. You may end up with sections of the tubing that are better annealed then others leading to failure during bending. Best way is to get it annealed in a computer controlled furnace. YMMV

 

I would tryit first without anealing it. I ahve bent plenty of smaller tube both round and square without issue. If you have a problem then aneal it. Use some grease or at least wd 40 to lube the die thats doing the bending. I use a hossfeld but the js os based on that bender and uses the same process.

 

If you can use 6063

 

do it the way it used to be done...

pack the tube with sand and seal the ends, this will help the tube from collapsing...

-franz

 

Make sure you buy the proper die and the nylon guides. They are made for aluminum with the JD2 benders and will keep you from marring the outside and fend off ripples. Tricktools.com has them. Call them up, they are very helpful.