[Irelands child]

I need to put a slight bend in a piece of 1-1/2 inch piece of 18ga exhaust tubing. I know that you can apply heat on one side and once cooled, it will bend the tube - but which way? Towards the heated side or away from the heated area. I think away, based on what I've welded as the heat affected zone seems to expand. I only need to go about a half inch over a 12" length.

Dave W

[302 Z28]

I have put small bends in exhaust tubing by heating the opposite side of the bend and forcing the tube in the direction of the bend once the opposite side is cherry red.

Vince

[matts37chev]

old school way of oxy welding closed molding holes was to quench cool it with a wet rag, so it would shrink in, to do your filler with out having to grind
so, with that said im guessing if you cool it quickly,after heating it, it would shrink on that side?
but im sure there is more knowledge around here, and im just guessing

[Cape Cod Bob]

Try practicibg on scrap tubing

[MARTINSR]

Heat up and then quench the side you want the pipe to bend toward. The heating and cooling will shrink that side, so it will suck the thing in bending it. I have never tried this with tubing, but have corrected bent tubing by doing this. I had a "welder" weld on some four bar brackets on a rear end once and warped the housing. It was bend down on each side. We heated the top half of the housings tube with a rose bud tip then quenched it by dunking it in a 5 gallon pail of water. Straightened it to as close to perfection as originally.

What exactly are you making? You can buy the pre-bent tubes and just cut and rotate to make the perfect bends you need. I have done a few exhaust systems like this and they came out great.

Brian