Thread: Bending 2 inch gal Pipe.

I have come across a need to bend some 50 mm gal pipe.
My ol mum is almost 83 and getting a tad unsteady on her pins these days!
The Occupational Therapist lady came the other day to assess the house for suitability for mum as she ages and suffers things like arthritis and unsteadiness of her feet etc with deteriorating balance issues.
Anyway I've put a stainless steel grab rail from Bunnings into the shower for her... that was easy enough.
BUT
The OT lady said I have to put in some hand rails on the rear brick steps outside that lead up to the lawn and clothesline so mum doesn't fall and break a hip or something, (which apparently can be pretty much fatal for the elderly/infirm).
So I got out some 2 x 1 pine and tek screwed together a template of what I will need in the way of heigh and length and angles for these two metal hand railings.
Then i went off to a gumtree address and bought some 50mm gal pipe lengths.
Came home and got out the pipe bender, welder and drop saw.
I test bent a piece of the 50mm dia gal pipe to the shallowest bend angle just to see how I would go.

It bent flat and kinked.

ROUGHLY this is what i was trying to accomplish.



So i have researched / read a little and seen suggestions of filling the pipe with sand, or water and welding end caps on... before trying to bend it... but I have a feeling it ain't going to work. The 50mm Gal pipe I stupidly bought seems a bit light in the wall to take a bend without flattening and kinking and I only have one of those cheap hydraulic bottle 12 tonne car jack type home pipe benders...

I think the pipe might be light weight fencing pipe or something and not heavy walled old 2 inch water pipe type gal pipe, which is why i don;t think it will bend probably.

I also don't have anything like oxy acetylene equipment to heat it up to bend it (I have a little primus gas torch brazing thing).

Any suggestions what i should do?

I asked at a local engineering shop, and gave them a cardboard template of what I wanted and the guy says "sure thing I'll do it as a cashy for you - I'll give you a ring with a quote" I offered to pay cash up front even -what that was over a month ago...and I've heard squat from him, so it looks like it's back to me to make these 2 rails.

Any suggestions where i went wrong with bending these pipes?

I did make some side steps for the old ute once years ago, that I bent with this pipe bender, and welded up, and they seemed to come out fine...



I must a just got lucky that time or something....

Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions.

As a steelworker - I make a fine carpenter!.

Hi Timeless,
you could buy (or you may already have ) two elbows or bends, cut the threads off (if they have any), I think you can buy weld on 90 deg bends. Then weld them together and cut them to suit the bend you desire.
Two bends will give you a 'U' shape so just keep trimming until you have what you need.
I hope I have explained this well enough.

Phil

Pack them with dry sand. A bit of wadded newspaper will keep the sand in position and should prevent the thin wall collapse. From mmemory there will be a bit of a distortion but not a lot, you may need packers in the die.

have a bit of a look here

http://www.onesteel.com/images/db_im...g_Nov2004p.pdf

Hopefully it will help.


Grahame

Probably the wall thickness of your pipe and of its origins? That could be the issue is lots of nasty cheap stuff around.Put it this way it aint Newcastle steel any more.Those pipe benders were to be used mainly for black pipe that seems to be easier to bend without deformation.Another option is to go to an exhaust shop,where they have a facility to bend thin walled stuff.With all material available you might find some thing more suitable there and with a weather proof finish.For oldies you want gentle curves,no sharp bits and not too large in diameter.Easier For them to grip and steady themselves.I get called on regularily to do these jobs as there are lots of elderly and semi ambulatory residents here.K I S S works best.John.ps of course you could treat dear old mum with some flash stainless steel.

Perhaps rethink the design, my suggestion would be to have a vertical stand at each end and then weld the separate rail across the top at the required angle.

Either cut and shape the tops of the vertical stand pipes to match the radius of the handrail at the required angle (finicky but easily done with a bit of patience) or weld a cap to the tops of the vertical stands and then weld a short piece of flat steel on edge up from that cap to support the hand-rail (which makes the fitting much easier)

You see this latter arrangement a lot around the place and it looks quite good.

If you can't weld or have no access to welders then the same general layout could be used but instead of welding, use clamps instead. You would need to put a slight bend at the top of each vertical stand so it met the hand-rail at 90 degrees. This would be a fairly gentle bend so less likely to wrinkle.

The welded solution would be preferable though.

2" pipe is a bit large for a hand rail, never get your hands around it to grab on..

hi

i see a lot of handrails as per your app. - 50mm pipe is a bit large - most use 32 nom. bore ( 42.4mm o/d) for the handrail, which seems to fit the hand better - and older ones too.

i know you already have the pipe.. but in the long run it may be better to fork out $40 - $50 for more suitible sized pipe and get 'medium' wall so you can bend it.

if you want to keep with the pipe you have - just make sure you have 'pipe' and not 'tube'. Withe pipe, you can buy 90 , 180 , and 45 deg pipe bends and just weld them on. they will only come in 'black' so just spray with cold-gal and then top-coat if required.

mark

Originally Posted by .RC.

2" pipe is a bit large for a hand rail, never get your hands around it to grab on..

Plus 1 on that 1 the old 1 inch and 1/2 38mm is the right size . Oldies need a smaller grip remember we are not thinking as we use bigger diameters with thinking. As we age we tend to think of these things.On Sunday one of the 80years young here had a spill grabbed for the hand rail at back stairs.2 inch rail well sadly he died purely because of not being able to get a good grip on the rail.Funeral today but going down to the ''smoke'' for a CSIRo tour. J.

That's all terrific advice guys - I have much more to think about now.

Also the diameter thing - I think you are right that 50mm is too large for mums hands. It's fine for me but not so for her - which I hadn't thought about.

I also think I could manage to do the end caps style pretty easily.

I'll mull this over a bit today and see what i come up with... I want to do this right, and not mess it up - I have a pair of gates I could make out of the 50mm gal pipe so it gets used up so no great loss there.

Thanks heaps again.

In case my idea wasn't clear here's my crap-o-cad drawing

rail.jpg

Thanks heaps Gavin, for the effort with the diagram - that's made it heaps easier to understand, and just as well because I was contemplating flattening the end of the pipe in the engineering vice or with a hammer and sliding it over the flat plate and just welding it which of course would have looked pretty crap to be honest!

Your way is easier to do and looks heaps better - so thank you so much for taking the trouble... to draw it out so I got the picture in my head.

I've been up the shed making the round bases with their locating plates, since early this morning.. (made a whole 1 so far)!
Just as well I stopped for a drink and a check of the forums before I went too far and screwed it up!

I don't have any flat plate for the caps or bases so am welding it up out of 4 inch pieces of 2 x 2 angle iron welded back to back to make a 4 inch square, then cut out tabs of the return right angled piece, leaving ~ 35 mm stick up 2 inches being the plate that locates the upright pipe - then I just use a 4 inch grinding disc as a template to scribe the round plate & use the grinder to cut the corners off the 4 inch square to make it into a 4 inch dia round plate!.

Its a bit of fiddle faddle - but I do love the fact you can join stuff in steel whereas in timber once you goof up - there's no going back.

I'm just using a cheap little stick welder.... so my methods are a little agricultural...but with the right design now it should look OK when done (I hope)!

I'll try and remember to get a couple progress pics along the way.

Thanks again - your diagram saved the day!

Another vote for taking the pipe to an exhaust shop and having them bend it for you. Just not worth screwing around in my opinion, and almost certainly any fabrication work you do on it will destroy the galvanising.

Pete

Pete I think it would look flashest if I went to a exhaust place with a mandrell bender.

That said it would cost $ that I could put to good use elsewhere (like connecting 3 phase to my new shed).

For me -the time to make it all out of straight lengths will work just as well and maybe even look OK if I take some care.

The radiused / bent corners would be safer from a "fall against them and bruise oneself badly" point of view for Old mum!

I've been at it now for about 3 or so hours and managed to make just 2 bases thus far so at this rate - i will still be making the next 2 until tomorrow.... which gives me time to chicken out overnight and take the template and pipe down to the exhaust place with the mandrel bender tomorrow and beg a favor...and pay out the pacific pesos for a professional looking result.

I actually had to break out the hacksaw for a bit there this morning and I'm a LOT more unfit than I realized.

The grinding / cutting I did do - I managed to set the leather welding glove on fire... burnt the stitching right out of it! I did notice once the back of my hand got a tad hot!

Bit of welding slag went thru my windcheater, and burnt my arm but nothing life threatening yet (and I am wearing my old metal working clothes with all the grinding burn holes and metal swarf stuck in them - so SWMTSWTP (She Who Mistakenly Thinks She Wears The Pants) can't complain that I just ruined another new windcheater - set of tracky dacks etc.

Thus far all good on the western front!.

2 base plates down and 2 more to go.



At this rate, I should be done, about - oh Christmas time! (Notice I didn't say which year)!.

That said it would cost $ that I could put to good use elsewhere (like connecting 3 phase to my new shed).

I know things have gotten a little ridiculous price wise over there, but I sure hope they're not charging 3 phase connection charges to throw a couple of bends in some pipe you supply!! If it took them more than 5 minutes to do the job they would probably want to consider getting out of the game, this is what these guys are doing all day every day. I honestly can't see it costing you more than a few beer tokens.

Pete

Noo on both instances if you want to get burned keep wearing that gear.mostly polyester it melts and sticks. tin or a 2 gall bucket water is handy in a fire situation first 30 seconds is the most critical in a shed situation.just a bit of advice from an old hand. I wear cotton jeans real or work pants real cotton and got lots of 40yo collection of ex army work clothes. if you ever had a melt down in the nether regions your she who thinks will be far from impressed.Clear your inflammables and work area and always be alert for fire including self ignition.Long pants good socks boots tight and long sleeve shirt.Less bare skin the better. 2 cents worth John.

Another thing seeing you are new to the metal work.Angle grinders are verboten in my shed any grinding is done out side on concrete always with water around and the guard aimed to where i can see the spark shoot. Never around cars does wonders to laminated windows etc.and if you got good machine tools the sparks will soon corrode any bright machine surfaces.done that for 40 yrs and inherited that from my old man. All my apprentices have followed suit.Hard task master here. J A