The Steamboating Forum

I have built a tube bender from Model Engineers Workshop plans it is capable of bending stainless steel, steel, brass & copper tubing from 1/8" to 1/2" and metric you just have to make the formers, mandrels and the vices etc you require. It does a great job on very tight radius no flattening of the tube only drawback it is a little time consuming the positive is the bend can be done very accurately to precise angles. As I am have no success in uploading photos onto this site you can see them on this http://s1150.photobucket.com/albums/o618/KiwiNoel/

You need to remove the word 'link' from the front to make it work (or add a space).

That looks excellent Noel, but quite a lot of work to build.

Go to: http://s1150.photobucket.com/albums/o618/KiwiNoel/

What a nice tube bender you have there, best I have seen. And beautiful Boilers too!

Thanks for the comments, the time it took to make it mean it's true cost is out of this world I enjoyed making it, however as you say Mike, retirement is doing what floats your boat, I do wish I had a 1340 size lathe and a Bridgeport mill the amount of swarf removed from sizing the slabs of steel had to borrow next door otto bin. You will notice I removed the word link thanks.
Noel

Such fine boilers! Excellent craftsmanship.

Dear Noel,

I have reviewed your post and all your photos with great interest. I have to say that your craftsmanship on your boiler is the best I have seen. Most impressive, besides the tube bender, is your method of rolling in the tubes in such a tight space.

As Editor of Smokestack, the Journal of the North American Steamboat Association, I am interested in publishing technical stories as I can get them. Would you be interested in (willing to) sharing stories (articles) on your builds? I am sure my readership would appreciate it.

Timothy Lynch, Editor
SL Flying Cloud
Oxford, Connecticut, USA