PVC Bendit tool

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schuricg

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Anyone in the Houston area with a pvc bendit heating tool available to rent or borrow? Looking to add a 360 tree and want to bend a 2 inch pvc pipe to make the 6 or 8 foot base circle


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If you can't find one of them, you can use the hot sand method. I bent 1" pvc with this method 180 for my doorway arch. You can bend the pvc like a wet spaghetti noodle. Its not that hard.

Here are some basic steps to get you started.

Using play sand.
-cap one end of the pvc
-pour sand into the pvc to measure out the right amount of sand.
-pour sand plus a little extra into an old pot/pan and heat on your grill outside. It doesn't have to get too hot.
-using a metal funnel, pour heated sand into pvc.
-let it "bake" for a few minutes
-bend into your desired shape.

This arch was made using hot sand.
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I recently made myself a homemade pvc bendit. I used nichrome heating element wired found on eBay for very cheap. I took a 24’ length and folded it in half twice and pulled it into 3/8” metal flex tubing. To do larger sized pipe, i just sleeve multiple bigger sized metal flex over the smaller one until it’s close to the right size. The biggest I’ve bent was 1.75” ID and it went pretty smoothly. Since all of the metal flex was just scrap pieces I had laying around, all it cost me was the $6 or so for the nichrome heating wire.


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Why do you want to bend 2" PVC? My first 6 years I had some gray 3/4" conduit for a tree base (I now use 3/4" EMT). The conduit bends in an 8' circle rather easily. I've bent 1" PVC using the method above, and I wish I had had a jig to follow.
 
Or alternatively, check with the local phone company or the contractors who run cable. I got a used 6' cable reel that produced 2ea 6' steel square tube rings, just by asking at a local construction site. They also come in 8' sizes.
 
Thanks all,

I did EMT for my first half tree a couple years back. I think PVC this time will be easier to get a good 360 base. Will try the hot sand method and jig up a frame to bend the pipe. Plan for this one to sit on a 2 x 6 frame with eyelets or something to allow quick assembly of the tree branches using bungee cord for the tension. I’ll post the results in a couple weeks when complete.


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The hot sand worked great. Get it too hot to touch and pour it in the pipe. After about a minute it’s just a wet noodle to form around the jig and lock in place with holding blocks.
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Why hot bend it at all? You are using grey electrical pvc conduit. It has a lot of flex already. If you have about 25ft or more, just flex it around and stick the non-flared end into the flared end. It will assume a pretty round shape and your connections to the base will keep it locked.
 
I did it in a large pan in the oven. Either way it takes quite some time to get the sand hot.
Don’t forget you’re also going to need to move that hot sand. And pour it into the pipe. So you’re going to need heavy gloves. And a metal funnel. Make sure to have a helper too. There’s a lot of stuff to keep hands on and you need to work reasonably quickly.


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Wow, very nicely done work.
impressive.
schuricg said:
Thanks all,

I did EMT for my first half tree a couple years back. I think PVC this time will be easier to get a good 360 base. Will try the hot sand method and jig up a frame to bend the pipe. Plan for this one to sit on a 2 x 6 frame with eyelets or something to allow quick assembly of the tree branches using bungee cord for the tension. I’ll post the results in a couple weeks when complete.


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Click to expand...
 
I made the same type base for my mega tree last year, I used red pex pipe. 2 sections and 2 connectors and I was good to go, plus it’s pretty red color for the holidays.
 
Jon I have been trying to figure out how to do this too. I'm the fix it guy for a volunteer non profit and use pvc when nothing else will work but have found that spinning the pipe with a heat gun does not give me even heat over a wide enough area to let me get the consistent radius I want.

I have considered nichrome element but have not been able to find something heat tolerant enough to use for the electrical insulation to isolate the element from the flex-conduit.

Can you help me out with how you handled that part of the project? I would very much appreciate the help.

John
 
medic511 said:
Jon I have been trying to figure out how to do this too. I'm the fix it guy for a volunteer non profit and use pvc when nothing else will work but have found that spinning the pipe with a heat gun does not give me even heat over a wide enough area to let me get the consistent radius I want.

I have considered nichrome element but have not been able to find something heat tolerant enough to use for the electrical insulation to isolate the element from the flex-conduit.

Can you help me out with how you handled that part of the project? I would very much appreciate the help.

John
Click to expand...

Have you tried filling the PVC with hot sand? I've seen some videos where it worked great.

HTH
 
medic511 said:
Jon I have been trying to figure out how to do this too. I'm the fix it guy for a volunteer non profit and use pvc when nothing else will work but have found that spinning the pipe with a heat gun does not give me even heat over a wide enough area to let me get the consistent radius I want.

I have considered nichrome element but have not been able to find something heat tolerant enough to use for the electrical insulation to isolate the element from the flex-conduit.

Can you help me out with how you handled that part of the project? I would very much appreciate the help.

John
Click to expand...

The kind I used had its own heat resistant insulation. I think it was a woven fiberglass type of material. It was something like this:https://www.ebay.com/itm/Electric-H...377799&hash=item343072d74f:g:ApIAAOSwFD5fWS0I

I just used a length that was 4 times the length of the flex conduit and folded it in half twice before pulling it thru.
 
I don't know the size you are talking but...

I have a 360 tree and I use 3 pieces of 1/2 inch grey PVC conduit as the base. The conduit has a flared end so one piece mates to the next. I connect 3 pieces then bend one end around to the other and mate the 2 free ends. It is not stiff. It is springy and holds a good circle without any additional effort. At the end of the season, I disassemble the circle for easy storage. I do have to strain and grunt to do the first disconnect but the rest are easy. I suspect larger circles could be made with thicker conduit just fine.

This obviously only works for a full circle
 
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