Straight Hard Tubing

[Appletax]

I am looking to do a custom loop for the first time and am extremely intimidated by bending hard tubing.

 

Would it be perfectly fine to use straight hard tubing with angled and extender fittings so all the tubing is straight and therefore I don't have to do any bending.

 

Like these:

 

 

 

 

[stealth80]

Don't be intimidated, just buy extra tubing, watch some videos and take your time, we all have the first time

[Leonard]

Sure it is fine but you will have to make sure the angled fittings are exactly the correct angle or it will leak.

[Appletax]

2 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

Don't be intimidated, just buy extra tubing, watch some videos and take your time, we all have the first time

[Eddie Current]

Yes, it fine. Anyone who faults you for such practice either has never done it or wants to see you struggle as they did when they were learning to do hard pipe.

[stealth80]

it can be tricky to get everything to line up properly, you can see in the bottom photo that the GPU is being forced down on the left side by the tubes - (no it isnt GPU sag as sag hangs lower at the right side and away from the PCI slot), the card in that photo is actually buckled.

 

In the top photo you can see fittings bent up away from the 90 degree angle which as previously stated can cause leaks. I would honestly just buy extra tubing (make sure it's PETG as acrylic is a biatch) and just learn. It isnt actually very hard, keep the heat gun on medium/low heat and move the tube continuously/rotate so not to create any hot spots. A jig is handy to help ensure your bends are uniformal - also make sure you have a silicone insert to prevent the tube from collapsing when you bend it.

 

It did flex on my first build and switched to hard line around 6 months later. I have 2x build logs in my signature if you wanna have a look

[0ld_Chicken]

I honestly feel like using all fittings/extenders is harder and takes more planning/time than bending does (not to mention it's much more expensive).  I have found it is easiest to use angled fittings where it makes sense and makes things easier, especially to get rid of multiple bends in a single tubing run.  If you can get away with only having one bend in each run, things will fall into place pretty easily.