Al u-bends

[JimZ -92' AWD Tsi]

>I would seriously like to get more info on the tubing bender you 
>designed for mandrel bending aluminum.  Please let me know if plans 
>are available.  I have my own mill and lathe.
>
>Thanks,
>Gary

A poor mans u-bender consists of a set of pipe benders from JC Whitney, 
clean fine sand, plugs for the pipes and t-clamps.  On one end of pipe 
to be bent insert a plug and t-clamp it in. Fill other end of the pipe 
with sand until almost full.  Insert the second plug into the open end 
and clamp the plug in. Bend the pipe using the pipe benders. 

The sand is the secret to keeping the even radius bend, it does not 
allow the pipe to compress.

 ___   _________________________________________________   ___
|___|  _________________PIPE____________________________  |___|
 plug                                                      plug

       _________________________________________________
plug->|___|____________sand in pipe_________________|___|<-plug        
       ^                                               ^
       |____                                        ___|  
            clamp                              clamp 

Works with all different size tubing.

cheers

JimZ