Pipe benders

[Woodsie1984]

Anybody here use a baileigh pipe bender on aluminum ? I my currently having issues trying to bend aluminum pipe with mine. Using 6063
1 1/4 aluminum pipe trying to build a wake tower for a guy. It keeps gouging the aluminum when I try to bend it. I’ve tried soap soapy water, wd-40, pipe lubricant for bending. It just keeps gouging when I try to bend it. Baileigh’s customer service is absolutely none…won’t respond back, tried calling couple times and just say someone will get back to you. I have the rdb-150 as model using pipe dies. Any info would be great thanks.

 

[Woodsie1984]

Anybody here use a baileigh pipe bender on aluminum ? I my currently having issues trying to bend aluminum pipe with mine. Using 6063
1 1/4 aluminum pipe trying to build a wake tower for a guy. It keeps gouging the aluminum when I try to bend it. I’ve tried soap soapy water, wd-40, pipe lubricant for bending. It just keeps gouging when I try to bend it. Baileigh’s customer service is absolutely none…won’t respond back, tried calling couple times and just say someone will get back to you. I have the rdb-150 as model using pipe dies. Any info would be great thanks.

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[TROLLCAT]

maybe a heavy grease

does the die have a rough spot

tiger torch preheat pipe a bit before bending

a few idea's

 

[Woodsie1984]

maybe a heavy grease

does the die have a rough spot

tiger torch preheat pipe a bit before bending

a few idea's

It’s a brand new die, tried bugging it little bit just make sure no sharp edges. Could try grease I guess..just hard to get off and need to weld on it too. Maybe I’ll try the pre heat

Thanks

 

[ABMax24]

Don't preheat aluminum, aluminum gets "hot short" which means it becomes prone to cracking when stressed while hot. Bend aluminum cold.

However, most aluminum comes heat treated to make it stronger, sometimes heating the aluminum up hot and then letting it air cool (called annealing) before bending helps. If your 6063 has a T3, T4, T5, or T6 after it is is heat treated and could benefit from annealing.

The annealing temperature for aluminum is about 413c or 775F, so you'll need to get it about that hot before air cooling and then bending. A simple sharpie helps here, it will burn off the aluminum at about 775f and lets you know you're at temperature.

However, it also looks like your bender is biting into the aluminum, I'd check that out first.

 

[Woodsie1984]

Don't preheat aluminum, aluminum gets "hot short" which means it becomes prone to cracking when stressed while hot. Bend aluminum cold.

However, most aluminum comes heat treated to make it stronger, sometimes heating the aluminum up hot and then letting it air cool (called annealing) before bending helps. If your 6063 has a T3, T4, T5, or T6 after it is is heat treated and could benefit from annealing.

The annealing temperature for aluminum is about 413c or 775F, so you'll need to get it about that hot before air cooling and then bending. A simple sharpie helps here, it will burn off the aluminum at about 775f and lets you know you're at temperature.

However, it also looks like your bender is biting into the aluminum, I'd check that out first.

Ya I’ve used the acetalyn soot trick to anneal aluminum round tube as that’s all I could get it in is T6. But now I’ve got pipe dies cause I can get less temper in aluminum pipe. So I don’t need to anneal it anymore as it’s not cracking. But for some reason it’s grabbing super hard and gouging it and the farther the bend the worse it gets. It’s smooth as can be in the die but some reason still catches the aluminum some how and then builds up more you bend the radius cause aluminum is so soft.

 

[neilsleder]

To me it looks like the die is to small. If you’re bending 1 1/4” pipe to OD is 1.66” and if you’re using a 1 1/2” due that could be the issue. My bender is a magnum from kms tools. I had to take a flap wheel on a die grinder to smoothen the dies out. Helped a bunch. And the best lube is straight liquid dish soap don’t water it down just poor it straight on there. It’s like jerking off you can never have to much lube lol. As far as annealing I prefer using a bar of soap over the acetylene, you rub a bar of soap where you want to heat it and heat it till the soap turns black. So much cleaner than way.

 

[Woodsie1984]

To me it looks like the die is to small. If you’re bending 1 1/4” pipe to OD is 1.66” and if you’re using a 1 1/2” due that could be the issue. My bender is a magnum from kms tools. I had to take a flap wheel on a die grinder to smoothen the dies out. Helped a bunch. And the best lube is straight liquid dish soap don’t water it down just poor it straight on there. It’s like jerking off you can never have to much lube lol. As far as annealing I prefer using a bar of soap over the acetylene, you rub a bar of soap where you want to heat it and heat it till the soap turns black. So much cleaner than way.

That looks good! It’s Deff the right size die. I’ve tried dish soap and a ton of it where it’s dripping off the aluminum and still no luck…helped a little bit but still gouged it. I went to 6063 pipe cause it bends with out cracking and don’t have to anneal every bend. I tried a piece of 1 1/4” steel pipe and works great but not the case with the aluminum pipe. Baileigh is really irritating me not getting back to me after I spent a lot of money for this bender and dies too

 

[neilsleder]

That looks good! It’s Deff the right size die. I’ve tried dish soap and a ton of it where it’s dripping off the aluminum and still no luck…helped a little bit but still gouged it. I went to 6063 pipe cause it bends with out cracking and don’t have to anneal every bend. I tried a piece of 1 1/4” steel pipe and works great but not the case with the aluminum pipe. Baileigh is really irritating me not getting back to me after I spent a lot of money for this bender and dies too

I’d take a flap wheel and round and smooth off all edges. Put a decent 1/8” radius on all of the even the around the radius of the die and the throat of the saddle. Or if you have a 1 3/4” die try that it’s not much bigger so might be ok. I found sch40 1 1/4” pipe bends nice no cracking. But sch80 about 60 degrees is max then cracks so you need to anneal it

 

[Sessionsdoo]

You said you're using a pipe die. For my pro-tools bender, I have pipe dies and then tubing dies. The difference is the diameter of the two style dies. I also use grease on the follower.

 

[Woodsie1984]

You said you're using a pipe die. For my pro-tools bender, I have pipe dies and then tubing dies. The difference is the diameter of the two style dies. I also use grease on the follower.

Yes I have both round tube and pipe dies

 

[Sessionsdoo]

Yes I have both round tube and pipe dies

Your good there then. I would try cleaning up die like neilsleder said. I did the same as he mentioned on all my dies but never have worked with alum and was all DOM 120wall for roll cages and rock sliders ect of 4x4s

 

[Go-Vertical]

Definitely use grease.


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