# copper pipe bend with conduit bender



## gimmeWood (Apr 3, 2008)

Does anybody know if type L or type M copper tube can be bent with a conduit bender and then used for hydronic piping without having been too structurally damaged from the bending?


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## Eric Johnson (Apr 3, 2008)

I'm pretty sure master of sparks does that.


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## NHFarmer (Apr 3, 2008)

I tried to bend 1/2 M with a 1/2"emt bender,no luck.I have heard that you can heat it and it will bend better but I have not tryed it


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## gimmeWood (Apr 3, 2008)

What happened when you tried to bend it?  Did it just break?


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## Ncountry (Apr 3, 2008)

Many years ago as a plumbers apprentice for a reputable plumbing and heating company we bent most of our copper. Saved on a lot of soldering and fittings. I remember using type L predominantly, type M would have a tendency to be quite thin or break on outside of the bends. We used benders made for the copper but were basically same concept as a conduit bender.


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## ebbci05 (Apr 3, 2008)

I'm in construction and I saw a plumber bend 1/2 copper to get around things in his way instead of using elbows and 45's.  Not exactly the way I would expect it to be done on a professional level anyway.  He would literally sit indian style on the floor and heat up the copper with a torch and then bend it however it needed to go.  Now these bends were at the most a 45 and usually less and it took him probably about a 1/2 hour to make one bend, and that was if he did it right the first time.  So to me it would seem that it would take a LONG time and a constant heat(more so than a typical torch) to get the copper to bend in a circle.  But I have never tried it myself so don't know for sure.  Like Eric said, there might be someone who has done it and knows the trick.


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## NHFarmer (Apr 3, 2008)

I tried to bend a 90* and the pipe just kinked no good at all


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## Chris S (Apr 3, 2008)

We used to buy BT copper such as MBT  (bending temper)  I haven't seen it in a while though.  I still have 2 ridgid benders that we use frequently.  1/2" & 3/4"  ratchet style benders-  much easier than the old style gear benders .   We routinely make 90 degree bends but only in L copper.  A piece of M can be tweaked a little, but even a 45 will most likely break the pipe.
Why do we keep them?  Same reason we use pex- less joints.  And in some situations it makes the job a lot easier & faster.  It takes a lot of getting used to though,  beginners create a lot of " artwork"  I also have a swaging tool, but that hasn't seen daylight in at least 10 years.

We did try an EMT bender once- before we bought the tubing benderss-  no luck even though sparky makes it look so easy

Chris


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## gimmeWood (Apr 3, 2008)

ok so it sounds possible but not easy.  I guess I'll go spend 15 bucks on a 10 footer of 1/2 inch L as a test.  I'll report back...


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## Bob Rohr (Apr 3, 2008)

Soft copper may be bendable with a condiut bender, although a tubing bender works better as it prevents it from "egg" shaping.  Really any  bender that has a follower, and closely fits the of od the tube will work on soft copper.  

I have a REMS Curvo that bends rigid hard drawn copper up to 1-1/4"

I doubt you will get a good bend on hard drawn copper with an electrical bender.  However they do bend PAP nicely.

 hr


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## MikeF (Apr 3, 2008)

Pook said:
			
		

> i read copper pipe has a memory so that if u bend it & try to come back a kink develops.
> locally i know of an old timer who keeps a treestump on the ground so he can make copper coils.



He in the still business?  :lol:


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## gimmeWood (Apr 4, 2008)

SUCCESS  I just bought a 1/2" EMT conduit bender and spiral-fied a 10 foot 1/2" L type copper pipe.  I think this is the route I am going to take for my heat exchanger...


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## DenaliChuck (Apr 5, 2008)

I know somebody has posted it here before, but in the "old days" they'd fill a pipe with sand and bend away without tools.  I did this with 1/2 inch soft copper and it was easy to make a neat, tight, 4" diameter coil to go around a fuel filter.  I used very dry sand and with some compressed air I was confident I got all the sand out.

Glad you were able to "spiral-fy" it gimmeWood!


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