Fabricating Stainless Handrails

[drewpster]

I am hoping to find someone out there that has done some bending on S.S tubing. I need to make a new handrail for the bow of my Tub. I will have to use a 20' stick so that's a challenge itself. I have done some bending using a mandrel press bender on some steel pipe, but not stainless.
You think a cheap press bender would do the trick? I have some leather left over from my holster making days. I was thinking of lining the mandrel and rollers with it to prevent marring. What do ya think?

 

[thurps]

Re: Fabricating Stainless Handrails

Look into the springs they put into 3/4 copper to prevent crushing. You can probably use a conduit bender. Good luck.

 

[tommays]

Re: Fabricating Stainless Handrails

I think you will find without the right tools the inside radis on sharp bends like a 160 deg at the bow will get many kinks like you see on exhaust sytems


I will try and snap a picture of the tool i built to bend bicycle forks it will bend everything but the tight bends

I love saving scraps and making tools



Tommays

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Fabricating Stainless Handrails

You can bend by hand or with few tools and get it right with few kinks, but you need to do a lot of prep work to avoid them.

Fill the tube with sand, seal the ends so the sand doesn't pressure its way out, and you can bend using jigs on a benchtop.

To do the bend the "right" way, you should really use a mechanical or hydraulic tubing bender with dies matched to the size of tubing you use. The cheapest ones I've seen are from JD squared, where the press and one size dies will cost about $650. I intend to buy one for myself eventually, but in the meantime I either weld tubing to shape or get someone else to bend it.

DO NOT buy a "pipe and tubing bender" from harbor freight or elsewhere for your tubing... pipe sizes are different from tubing and it will kink your tube.

Erik