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Bending Stainless Steel Tubing

B

Bubbles Galore

Active member
I got my trough built to run my new lines for the auto, but I am getting mixed messages from a few different people on how I can bend this tubing. I have 3/4", 1/2" and 3/8" to bend. The 3/8" I am not too worried about since Harbor Freight carries a hand bender that should do the trick. I'm curious if the 1/2" and 3/4" can be bent with a conduit bender for electrical conduit? The O.D. is the same and the wall thickness of the tubing is only slightly larger than that of electrical conduit?!? I didn't buy a ton of extra tubing, so I don't really have the luxury of "experimenting" to see what will work...

Thanks in Advance!
 
Bubbles, 3/8" and 1/2" s.s.tubing must be bent with a hand tubing bender. 3/4" tubing can be bent with a 3/4" conduit bender. With the 3/4" tubing, just go slow and gently and it will bend perfectly. FYI...1/4" tubing can be bent by hand without a hand held bender.
 
Mike, I used a 1/2" bender for the 3/8" and 1/2" and it worked perfectly...no flat spots or anything. For the 3/4" I used the 3/4" conduit bender and it worked out great too...
 
So can I ask where you got your tubing? Was it expensive.....I have thought I would like to use stainless in place of hoses for quite a while but have not taken the time to research more. Did you order it in specific lenghts or did you cut it and have to thread the ends to accept hose fittings your self...Would like more details. Thanks
 
I get all my stainless tubing and fittings from a company called PAC Stainless. I think they have outlets all over the country. In the long run, the stainless is less expensive than hoses as you never have to replace it. Tubing comes in 20' lengths. You can bend it (with the right bender) cut it with a standard plumbers tubing cutter. I only use compression type fittings as they are easy to work with and last forever, slip the tube in, tighten it and you're done. Keep it in place with unistrut and cushion clamps. Makes for a nice neat installation.
 
MikeV said:
I get all my stainless tubing and fittings from a company called PAC Stainless. I think they have outlets all over the country. In the long run, the stainless is less expensive than hoses as you never have to replace it. Tubing comes in 20' lengths. You can bend it (with the right bender) cut it with a standard plumbers tubing cutter. I only use compression type fittings as they are easy to work with and last forever, slip the tube in, tighten it and you're done. Keep it in place with unistrut and cushion clamps. Makes for a nice neat installation.
Click to expand...

Are your fittings stainless? I had some stainless runs in the tunnel where the fittings rusted away. Also had some stainless bends which failed after a decade or so of vibration.
 
To answer a few questions, I bought my tubing from Alro and my stainless compression fittings from McMaster Carr. I had to build a new trough for the lines and used strut channel along with the vibration reducing strut clamps. If I could do it all over, again, I would build the trough wider, but beyond that, I love it. I am thinking about converting all my self serve lines over to stainless too.
 
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