First daft question

[dm65]

Right, as said, I have many a daft question and my first is about kinking or wrinkles when using a bender

Bought a cheap bender from Wicks (which may of course be the problem) and when bending, even low angles, I get wrinkles in the bend

I'm not particularly bothered about the wrinkles though it would be nice if it didn't happen, but are wrinkles an issue later on ie crud build up (ch pipe) or weakness

If I should be worried, how do you stop this happening ?

Regards

Denis

 

[Dotty]

You'd be right in your supposition that it's because of it being a cheap bender. Try giving the formers a good rub with wire wool. Then a good squirt of wd40.

 

[Ermintrude]

Bend slowly

 

[dm65]

Thanks Croppie, I'm a bit of a woodworker so know about fettling tools so should have tried this already perhaps - i'll give it a go tomorrow

Ermintrude - I did try slow and didn't make any difference but when searching, I found someone who suggested taking 5 minutes to form a bend which made me wince, then promptly ignore !

Regards

Denis

 

[kris]

Mostly the benders however the more the copper grade reduces the easier they ripple, copper just aint wot it used to be, ive always had a hilmor bender and when i boiught a standing bending machine for 28mm from bend it now i recieved a free hand bender and must say nowhere near quality of hilmor,

 

[helpsy]

Technical term is " throating" if I recall. No I'm not watching late night channels!

 

[Ch4 plumbing]

As Kris has said it can be the bender or the grade of copper, sometimes if the copper Is to brittle or thin it won't bend properly, and can even snap.

 

[kay-jay]

loose bolts on the formers cause rippling too

 

[Best]

I would scrap the bender if you can't sort it immediately.
A lot of badly rippled bends can be caused by slight corrosion on the bender.
i very rarely get one ripple on bends & I scrap the copper & start again. Sometimes a tiny dent on a piece of copper if to the inside of the bend about to be formed, will result in the bend having a big dent, but if it was on the outside of bend, it will pull out when you bend it. Foreign 28mm copper was useless to bend, I remember.

 

[dm65]

Ok, I don't want to bin it (cost £27 !!) and I've only just got back so no time now to start messing around with it so i'll try and look at it tomorrow

As for poor pipe, I still have some of the old stuff I'm replacing so will have a go with that and see if its as bad

Honestly, for the amount of work I'll be doing with it, I wouldn't have bothered but found I needed to bend a couple of offsets cos I drilled in the wrong place :cuss: so I guess it's earned it's money already

Regards

Den

 

[Best]

£27 quid? No wonder you can't bend with it!
I have a hand bender made by Record, which cost about £50 maybe about 30 years ago!
Also have one large & one standard sized old high quality British Hilmor benders, both of which would cost hundreds each if you could buy the equivalent today.
All of them bend copper perfectly.
if I were you, I would send the bender back & ask for my money. Not fit for purpose if it ripples pipes. After all, you wouldn't accept a hammer that bends every nail you hit with it, would you? :smile:

 

[oz-plumber]

Unfortunately the ripples in the pipe are going to cause you some grief in the future, particularly if on CH pipe.
The constant expansion and contraction of heating piping will eventually cause leaks on the ripples.

Rub soap or candle wax on the benders, if this doesn't fix the problem, return or scrap the benders.

It may be the best 27£ you've wasted

 

[dm65]

Unfortunately the ripples in the pipe are going to cause you some grief in the future, particularly if on CH pipe.
The constant expansion and contraction of heating piping will eventually cause leaks on the ripples.

Rub soap or candle wax on the benders, if this doesn't fix the problem, return or scrap the benders.

It may be the best 27£ you've wasted

It won't be the first £27 I've wasted though !!

This is what I was looking for though, whether or not the ripples are a problem or just unsightly - thanks Oz-plumber

I'll see if I can give them a tweak later as the practice I did on some of the old copper is as bad as the new stuff

Regards

Denis