catracer343

Howdy all! I stumbled across nice trick for bending fuel tubing tonight while setting up a tank for a new plane that I just built! For years, I have been bending my fuel tubes with nothing inside and had to suffer with less than "tight" radius's in my bends to not end up with kinks and cracks. Tonight I happened to look on the shed wall and saw a roll of plastic weed eater string that was ever so slightly smaller than the I.D. of my fuel tube, so I though "why not try it?" I slid the plastic string inside the tube, bent a quite sharp 90 degree bend in it, then pulled out the line with my plies, and was amazed at how perfect the bend came out...Kink free! Just thought it would be good to pass along to all of my R/C buddies! -Craig

dhal22

thx!

MarvinLoomis

My Feedback: (20)

Fantastic idea!!

Bundubasher

Thanks - nice one!

PDuck

Great Idea! Thanks

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Sand or salt works well too

KitBuilder

Sand or salt... who woulda thunnk! We got plenty of sand in florida I'll have to try that one.

hockeypilot

My Feedback: (4)

A tube bending kit costs very little money and comes in several sizes. I've used one OD for most of my airplanes/fuel tanks...
They are basically coiled spring tubes the fit around the outside dimension of your brass fuel tubing.
Bend it slowly and there are no kinks...plus they look like a professional did it.
Tower has 'em...for very little money, might be free if you add it to your next order:

Stock Number

LXR791

Retail Price<sup>‡</sup> 3.19

Tower's Low Price

$3.09

No salt, no sand, no mess!
jw

balsa brain

I used your technique tonight to make up a Sullivan tank and can say without a doubt that it is the best I have ever tried. It worked the first time without a problem at all. Thanks much for posting this.

DustBen

My Feedback: (3)

Old style throttle cables work well too.
I've also filled the tubes with water, frozen them, and then mangled the tubings into the desired shapes.
Oh... and everyone knows that some brass tubing comes in the soft state while some is hardened, right?
Warming the tubing with a torch until cherry red and then quenching it in water will render it soft again.

LesUyeda

Dust Ben. That works on some of the brass alloys, but not all. Some require heating, then slowly cooling. Been there done that.

Les

Rodney

To soften any brass, heat to cherry red then dunk in water. To harden reheat and then cool very slowly. Just the opposite of what iron/steel requires.

The Ghost

I have used a Dubro tube bender for over 30 years, don't need anything else.

Cheers

Charlie P.

I have a few pieces of stranded wire that's been tinned. I pulled off as many strands as required so it fits inside 3/32" and 1/8" tubing. No better or worse than weedtrimmer line but works as well. I use that, too.

Another good tip is to press the end with a marking pinch. That flares the tubing just enough so that a Nylon cable tie will keep it on the tube.

Or solder on barbs.

The Ghost

Craig, good idea, used to use the same thing for bending brake pipes for cars years ago, you can pick up different sized springs at hardware shops. I bought a Dubro tube bender 30 years ago and it still works as new, used to make my own tanks back then.

Cheers