Bending Pipes

If you want to carry a pipe over a small obstruction (another pipe, for example), a slight kink in the pipe will be less of an obstruction to the flow of water and create less noise than two elbows within a few centimetres of each other. If you need to run pipes into a window alcove where the walls meet at an unusual angle, bending the pipes accurately will allow you to fit the pipes neatly against the alcove walls. A Stratford Plumber can bend pipes.


Using a Bending Spring.

A bending spring is the cheapest and easiest tool for making bends in a small pipe. It is a hardened steel coil spring that supports the walls of copper tube to stop it kinking. Most bending springs are made to fit inside the pipe, but some slide over it. Soften the section to be bent by heating first and cooling, then slide the spring into the tube, so it supports the area to be bent. Hold the tube against your padded knee and bend it to the required angle. The tube will grip the spring, but slipping a screwdriver into the spring at one end and turning it anticlockwise will compress the spring so it can be pulled out. If you make a bend some distance from the end of the tube, you will not be able to withdraw the bending spring with a screwdriver. Either, use an external spring, or tie string to the ring and lightly grease the spring with petroleum jelly before you insert it. Slightly over bend the tube, open it out to the correct angle to release the spring, then pull it out with the string. Stratford Plumbers use pipe bending tools.


Using a Pipe Bender.

Although you can hire bending springs to fit the larger pipes, it isn’t easy to bend 22 or 28 mm (3/4 or 1in) tube over your knee, so it is well worth hiring a pipe bender to do the job. Ensure that you fit the correct former to suit the pipe diameter. Hold the pipe against the radiused former and insert the straight former to support it. Pull the levers towards each other to make the bend, and then open up the bender to remove the pipe.