Double bends

[rafe_28]

So i am doing my first custom loop ina  few days when parts from EK arrive and i have alr kinda planned the loop in my head and i realised i will have to do double bends probably multiple times. Whats ur guys tricks to get em right? N pls dont just say eye ball it

[For Science!]

Have excess tubing so that when it goes wrong, you can try again.

[vf1000ride]

Buy one of the mandrel bending kits if you don't already have one, IE thermaltake https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Pacific-Cooling-Bending-CL-W093-AL00BL/dp/B01BX3EZUI, bitspower https://www.titanrig.com/custom-pc-cooling/tubing/tools/bending/bitspower-mandrel-kit-for-16mm-outer-diameter-rigid-tubing-05-45-bp-0104-01-on.html  or the sort.  They are tubing size specific.

 

Getting 2,3,4 bends right in a single run of tubing is progressively harder the more bends you add and if they are at different angle to each other.  I find that starting the bends first and getting them looking good and then trimming the length of the straight sections seems to work well for me.  Don't think that it has really gotten easier, I have reconfigured my computers loop 4 different times now with the hard tubing and I waste almost twice as much tubing as what I end up happy with.  Virtually every piece in my machine has been made at least twice and the one tube in the picture below I think I am on the 4th try and decided it was good enough.  It is 4, 90 degree bends in a piece of tube that is probably less than 10inchs (24cm) long.

[rafe_28]

8 hours ago, For Science! said:

Have excess tubing so that when it goes wrong, you can try again.

I got enough tubing.

 

3 hours ago, vf1000ride said:

Buy one of the mandrel bending kits if you don't already have one, IE thermaltake

Well its more about the measuring. Having the ends face in 2 different directions makes it hard because the middle piece needs to be perfect. I honestly am not worried about those bbends where u basically end up with a 180 since u can just shorten on side and then the other till it fits or adjust the last bend a bit without it looking horrible i feel like

[For Science!]

On average i think it takes around 2n-1 tries  to get a run with n bends. Even with a bending kit there are other factors such as even heating anf forces that just cant be predicted. So its a matter of skill and having way more tubing than you need.

[vf1000ride]

15 hours ago, rafe_28 said:

I got enough tubing.

 

Well its more about the measuring. Having the ends face in 2 different directions makes it hard because the middle piece needs to be perfect. I honestly am not worried about those bbends where u basically end up with a 180 since u can just shorten on side and then the other till it fits or adjust the last bend a bit without it looking horrible i feel like

I haven't figured out a great way of pre-measuring the distance between bends.  I have been going off measuring the outside-outside of the tube fittings on the components and then attempting to measure this out on the tubes after the first bend has been made.  I use a fabric tape measure that you would normally find in the sewing dept of a store as it allows you to go around corners and is soft enough to not scratch the tubing.  I have never gotten it perfect on a first time though and it always takes a small amount of adjusting or even restarting a new tube before getting it right.  Another thing I have done that seems to help is to start with the longer, more complex runs of tubing first so that the bad pieces can hopefully then be cut down and re-used for the shorter segments in the PC. 

[Ravendarat]

On 4/24/2021 at 9:44 AM, rafe_28 said:

So i am doing my first custom loop ina  few days when parts from EK arrive and i have alr kinda planned the loop in my head and i realised i will have to do double bends probably multiple times. Whats ur guys tricks to get em right? N pls dont just say eye ball it

I know you said not to say it but Im gonna cause its what I found works best for me. I eye ball it. Ive been in a field where I build things all the time from scratch so maybe ive just gotten good at it but I have done two different loops in the last 18 months, both had 2 different compound bends and both builds I just eyeballed it and nailed it. I mean I can think of a few different ways of doing it, using string, using clay, using split loom, all different ways of mocking it up but at the end of the day I would just go by eye, especially since you said you ordered extra tube. Im planing out my next one right now and i ordered 12 meters of tube for a loop thats only gonna be doing cpu at first but I wanted to make sure that I had extra incase I want to do any kind of weird bends

 

[Blai5e]

@rafe_28 - Something else I've done to help with complex bends - prototype them using a chenille stem (pipe cleaner). Packet of 40 should only be a few of bucks at any crafting/office supply store.

[rafe_28]

7 hours ago, Ravendarat said:

12 meters

Well shit i just got 4 and now i am scared xD

 

48 minutes ago, Blai5e said:

Something else I've done to help with complex bends - prototype them using a chenille stem (pipe cleaner). Packet of 40 should only be a few of bucks at any crafting/office supply store.

This sounds actually like something viable. I am probably gonna do it that way. Ty

[airborne spoon]

when i make my loops i do the first bend then hold it in the approximate location it needs to go then make a mark with an arrow so i know what direction to bend the next bit because while its rotating over the heat gun you can easily lose track of what direction to go with the bend, plenty of times i went the wrong way. having extra tubing lying around is always helpful. its cheap but it is still annoying to screw it up especially when you have like 5 bends and its the last one that you mess up.

 

As you can see in my pic i am still working on figuring out how to make those rounded bends, oddly enough they are much harder to do than making 2ea 90 degree bends because the amount of tube that has to be bendy and the spot for the bend is always not where i intend for it to end up at. but for now it is in the good enough for government work category and I'm rolling with it as is.

 

Hard line tube bending is all trial and error and the more you bend the better hang you'll get for it, just remember to never bend early let it get a little extra wobbly rather than not wobbly enough or else you'll get kinks in your bend that look like trash.