First time hard-tubing, HELP!

[Motorcate]

It is my first time making a waterloop with acrylic/hard tubing and would love some advice? My primary fears are breaking the tube and bending/cutting it wrong.

All help will be much appreciated

[Tetters]

1. measure carefully

2. Then measure even more carefully again.

3. Take your time, be prepared to mess up and start over a few times ...

4. Buy plenty of spare tubes for those mess-ups.

5. be patient ...  dont rush the heating or bending process

 

Dont worry if you make a mess of it the first time round, just start over and you will soon learn and become confident.

[Elehat]

LTT did a video on this recently. If you're bending your tubing, I can advise to:

Buy loads more tube than you think you'll need (don't use 'nearly' pieces, have another go)

Get decent fittings

Don't try to be heroic with bend radius 

Get thick walled tube

Don't bend immediately next to a fitting

Measure twice cut once

Plan your loop out in advance

Keep the silicon inner tube thing in until you're absolutely sure 

Don't force the bend, wait until it's hot enough to go easily

Get PETG (Acrylic has it's advantages but PETG is much more 'first timer' friendly)

Go slow and have fun! 

[KWelz]

First off don't do Acrylic.   Go PETG.   I started with Acrylic ans switched to PETG within a month.    Much easier to work with.   

 

Have everything set up and read to go ahead of time.  There is nothing worse than heating a tube and then going to bend it only to find you are out of position or the guide you have to bend around is in the wrong place.   

 

Measure, measure, measure.   It can be very hard o figure out where the actual bend will happen at first.   I suggest a Metal hangar as a guide.   

 

Understand that you will mess up.  Don't try to fix a bad bend.   Cut it off and start over.  

 

I got a 12 pack of 36 inch Tubing on amazon for less than 30 bucks.   I am glad I got as much as I did.   I have plenty left over but not near asmuch as I thought I would. 

[OddsCrazyStuff]

Having just done this my self, so is there 3 things that made it way harder then it needed to.

 

1. Where the heat gun makes the bend.

I cant tell how many times I needed to do more work, because the bend was a little off. You need to learn where to heat or you will end up with a lot more work.

 

2. Cutting to short.

Never cut what you think you need the first time around. Always take your time and cut several times, while trying the fittings between each time (screw them on, not just put it in place).

 

3. Wrong amount of heat.

Several times so did I need to start over, because I bent with ether too little heat or too much. Basicly whenever the tubing gets deformed when bending (like bulging out).

[Tsuki]

measure three times, then cut it longer than you measured, you can always cut more off later if you need to, but if you cut off too much, you're starting over

[Motorcate]

LTT did a video on this recently. If you're bending your tubing, I can advise to:

Buy loads more tube than you think you'll need (don't use 'nearly' pieces, have another go)

Get decent fittings

Don't try to be heroic with bend radius

Get thick walled tube

Don't bend immediately next to a fitting

Measure twice cut once

Plan your loop out in advance

Keep the silicon inner tube thing in until you're absolutely sure

Don't force the bend, wait until it's hot enough to go easily

Get PETG (Acrylic has it's advantages but PETG is much more 'first timer' friendly)

Go slow and have fun!

Can you link the video please? I have tried looking but i can not see anything within the 3 month margin.

[Elehat]

Can you link the video please? I have tried looking but i can not see anything within the 3 month margin.

 

Well last time I added a youtube link I got warned by the mods, so here goes...