Plumbing: Bending Ridgid Brass Supplies
I do historical remodeling, and my latest escapade has me in fits. The project is an historical renovation in is what is supposed to be a historically correct bathroom. We are on the tail end. The architect spec’ed out solid rigid polished and laquered brass supplies for the pedestal sink. ManOMan, it is beautifull stuff. Solid brass and porcelin angle stops, but with rigid half inch brass supplies. Same stuff for the toilet, but with a wall hung pull chain toilet, they are obviously longer.
Here is the rub–I can’t bend the rigid supplies. These things are about a sixteenth of an inch thick and hard as nails. There are of course lots of offsets between the angle stop and the faucet. I have called a dozen plumbers and they can’t bend the stuff. All they have is a quarter inch tubing bender for soft copper, and a half inch spring type bender for flexible copper.
I asked an old timer, who told me that in the 1930’s they plumbing shops would have to bend galvinized and had a brake-type pipe bender in most of their shops, but with the advent of quick connects and corregated flex, bending rigid pipe is a lost art.
Any ideas on how to bend rigid supplies?
I took the flush tube (from the high tank to the toilet bowl) to a muffer shop and got that bent nicely, but they have nothing that small.
Boris
“Sir, I may be drunk, but you’re crazy, and I’ll be sober tomorrow” — WC Fields, “Its a Gift” 1927
Replies
Boris, Diacro is a company that makes tubing benders. Call around your area to see if a metal fabricator has one. Someone who does prototype and/or low production work. Where are you at? They are not really portable so you need to bring them your tubing w/ some good dimensions. Diacro may know who has one neer you. The finish will probably get scuffed in the process so it will need to be polished afterwards.
J.
Go to almost any "good" auto parts store and they will have a bender that will do the job. KD-Tools makes the one I happen to have.
Good Luck,
ES
If it's schedule 40 pipe size then the hydraulic benders that electricians use for bending rigid conduit would work. A good commercial electrician is really good at getting the bends to come out just right. I'm not sure you can prevent cracking and scratching the laquer, though.
This is not "Schedule 40", it is half inch OD rigid brass for a plumbing supply. The electrical stuff is half inch ID. This is really way too small for an electrical conduit bender.
I do think I might check into the automotive tubing bender, but I bet that is for soft copper or steel, you know for brake lines, not this rigid brass.
I guess my point is that Plumbers used to do this; they didn't used to have flex, and I just question why this has apparently become a lost art.
I suppose plasters will be non-existent in another 10 years.
Regards,
Boris
"Sir, I may be drunk, but you're crazy, and I'll be sober tomorrow" -- WC Fields, "Its a Gift" 1927
Check out http://www.mcmaster.com and type in "tubing bender" in the search box. The lever ones listed on the second page are what we use to bend fairly thick wall stainless steel tubing; I never had the need to do hard brass. It looks like they will set you back about $100, though.
Hope this helps. Rich.
The automotive tubing bender I spoke of is indeed designed for brake lines and fuel lines. It looks like a large adjustable pin spanner with various pullies (disks) for the various sizes of lines. Steel fuel tubing was pretty "rigid" if I remember correctly but a LITTLE bit of heat applied to your supply lines might also go a long way to assist in a smooth bend using the tool I described.
Good Luck,
ES
certainly not a lost art, you just need to find a bender with the correct sized 'shoe' for your OD.
Any good machine shop could whip you up one shoe to fit any commercially available pipe bender.
Most likely, there's one out there that's close enough for your project (although you may have to buff the brass finish back to 'smooth and shiny' afterwards if you can't find a close enough fit). Try the companies who supply pipe bending tools (you can get their names out of any big tool supply catalog like Northern Tool or Harbor Freight, or try a google search on the web.
:o)
Norm