Tools under £10; Fuel/Brake Pipe bender.

Tools under £10; Fuel/Brake Pipe bender.

I was having difficulties bending Brake pipe in a confined space on my rusty old Escort, also the shops were shut. So to work around this I took a chance with another homemade tool. The thing is I’ve used this tool to do all my brake pipes now.
First of all I've only used it on copper Brake pipe which is soft and forgiving but I’d suggest trying it out on a practice piece first.

I collected some washers about the size of a 10p and the thickness of the pipe to be bent (3/16ths). I then cut Two squares of scrap metal and drilled holes the same thickness of the hole in the washers then fitted a nut and bolt and washer. I also had drilled a smaller hole in the corner of the Square plates to accommodate a dowel (or similar smooth object that doesn’t mark the pipe) for something to keep the pipe square when bending but only a sliding fit (I didn’t need this extra fitting but I’d already made it like that).Of course you could attach a handle if that’s what you need.

Hold the brake pipe tight against the washers and gently ease the pipe round to the desired shape. (I used a piece of stiff wire to copy the bend as a template).
The internet is a great place for information and this idea is probably out there already, but if you’ve found this page and have not been able to obtain an appropriate pipe bender this tool has worked for me and is simple and cheap to make. Regards,SB Metalman.

Neat idea, use different size washers and another corner hole to bend different radius.

actual photos

Thats right Robotstar5. Here are some Photo’s of the actual Brake/Fuel Pipe Bender I made, which should have gone with the last post. I had to resize them to fit the page.

You could buy one of these for about £10, you get profiled wheels and using them is easy. You can even bend the pipe on the vehicle.

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/17898/Hand-Tools/Plumbing-Tools/Pipe-Bending/Mini-Tube-Bender

When replacing brake pipes, I always do my best to remove the old one without altering the shape in any way then bend the new one to match it. Did the two front-to-rear ones on my truck recently and the mot tester said he was really impressed with how neat and tidy they were considering how long they were and the awkward path they had to follow. I hate seeing them just roughly following a path, it looks horrible.

Nice cheap solution, which could easily be made with things lying around.

Good post

I just read recently in a canadian autobook that an old pully would do the trick

Good thinking!

I use one of these:

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/products/ProductDetail.asp?cls=MSPORT&pcode=S/C000160

Mind you I think it was about a fiver courtesy of a special offer in Practical Classics at the time, though not from Demon Tweeks... I used it when I replaced all the lines on my Esprit, found I could get the pipe to run 180 degrees back on itself with just the thickness of the pliers between the runs! It's also useful for tidying up bends in-situ when the lines are already on the car; my TVR had had a new clutch line fitted and it was about a foot too long so I was able to dress it to follow a better route.

That tool looks like it could get at those awkward places, A little pricey but concidering what it costs to have your brakes done the cost is low and a purpose made tool gives confidence.

I like this idea a lot