Bending aluminum tubing.

[The patriot]

OK. I'm running the WVO but I really should be warming it.

I bought some of this stuff:

"5177K53 1 Each Easy-bend Aluminum Tubing, 5/8" Od, . 555" Id, . 035" Wall Thk, 25’ Coil"

and need to know what's the best way to bend it. It's supposed to be "hand bendable" but I gotta tell ya, it's pretty dam stiff stuff.

I need to make a tube to run into my 60 gal transfer flow. It has to fit through the sender hole, which is about 3" dia. Well, it dont have to, but I really dont want to drill holes in my tank. I dont mind drilling a couple holes in the sender plate.

I'd like it to be a coil in the bottom of the tank, but I know that's a bit unreasonable. A simple "L" shape should be fine.

TIA

Eric

 

[GHarman]

OK. I'm running the WVO but I really should be warming it.

I bought some of this stuff:

"5177K53 1 Each Easy-bend Aluminum Tubing, 5/8" Od, . 555" Id, . 035" Wall Thk, 25’ Coil"

and need to know what's the best way to bend it. It's supposed to be "hand bendable" but I gotta tell ya, it's pretty dam stiff stuff.

I need to make a tube to run into my 60 gal transfer flow. It has to fit through the sender hole, which is about 3" dia. Well, it dont have to, but I really dont want to drill holes in my tank. I dont mind drilling a couple holes in the sender plate.

I'd like it to be a coil in the bottom of the tank, but I know that's a bit unreasonable. A simple "L" shape should be fine.

TIA

Eric

Well Pilgrim(John Wayne accent), ya need a tubing bender:-laf! Really ! They have 'em that looks like a tightly wound spring. That is supposed to keep from collapsing a wall. If you get one of those spring benders, you could, with a little help, bend a coil around a mandrel of your choice that would match the diameter of your desired coil (But not to tight of a radius). BTW, Aluminum work hardens as you bend it. It can be annealed by heating and quenching in water if you see the need. Just some thoughts. GregH

 

[The patriot]

Thanks. I've also read where you could fill it with sand to stop it from kinking.

Do you think I can get the 5/8 tubing tightly wound enough to get a coil in a 3" hole?

 

[GHarman]

Thanks. I've also read where you could fill it with sand to stop it from kinking.

Do you think I can get the 5/8 tubing tightly wound enough to get a coil in a 3" hole?

If you are talking about a <3" diameter coil? Not without tooling in my opinion. Thats a pretty tight radius! If the coils were spaced like a screw thread you may be able to"thread" it in if you get the diameter and the spacing just right. I would not use the sand (unless you are sure you can completely remove it). To much chance or leaving some inside the tube and contaminating your fuel tank or your heating system. Why did you choose aluminum over copper?

Another thought, How about putting the heating elements on the outside of your tank with a cover and insulation? I dont know what your tank location,configuration or material is? Just thinking out loud. GregH

 

[The patriot]

"Why did you choose aluminum over copper? "

Efficient heat transfer.

It's a cross bed aluminum diamondplate tank.

I've thought of having a 1" bung welded in the side and just going to a 110V hot water heater element, but I just dont feel comfortable with that. Besides I'd like it to keep the oil hot while running.

 

[jwgary]

You are looking at bending in less than a 1 inch radius to fit inside a 3" hole. That's pretty tight and you definitely couldn't do it by hand. A conduit bender would probably be fairly close to the right size for 5/8 OD. That would give you about a 2-3" bend radius. Like GHarman said above, it sounds like the only way to do it is to make the coils loose enough to thread through the hole. You don't even have to do coils. A repetitive pattern of 90 deg. bends could achieve the same effect and be much easier to do.

Also check out http://gfxtechnology.com/ to see some pre-made copper coils that you might be able to use.

 

[The patriot]

Got:



Bad Request



Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.

Apache/2. 2. 9 (Unix) mod_ssl/2. 2. 9 OpenSSL/0. 9. 8g DAV/2 mod_auth_passthrough/2. 1 mod_bwlimited/1. 4 FrontPage/5. 0. 2. 2635 Server at host119. hostmonster.com Port 80



with that link. I just started using firefox, maybe it's something on my end. ?

I'm starting to think I should have gone soft copper more and more.

The tank is now empty, I'd like to get this done this week... ... . somehow.

 

[GHarman]

Make sure you isolate copper from the aluminum so you dont get corrosion from electrolisis betweed dissimilar metals. GregH

 

[Bob Cochran]

I clicked on the link and went right to the page. I am using Firefox as well.

Got:



Bad Request



Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.

Apache/2. 2. 9 (Unix) mod_ssl/2. 2. 9 OpenSSL/0. 9. 8g DAV/2 mod_auth_passthrough/2. 1 mod_bwlimited/1. 4 FrontPage/5. 0. 2. 2635 Server at host119. hostmonster.com Port 80



with that link. I just started using firefox, maybe it's something on my end. ?

I'm starting to think I should have gone soft copper more and more.

The tank is now empty, I'd like to get this done this week... ... . somehow.

 

[RGatlin]

don't use copper

i've been running wvo for a while now and everything i've read says that copper and wvo react in some potentially bad things when put in prolonged contact with each other. so to be on the safe side i would never do it. have you looked into some of the commercial tank heaters. i think one of them is called hot fox. good luck. bob

 

[GHarman]

Hot Fox?

Here's a link. Greg

Hot Fox Fuel Warmer, Adapters & Parts



If you had several of these, in-line, it should work great on a cross the bed tank?

 

[The patriot]

Thanks guys. It's aluminum coil. The pickup & return tube in the transfer flow is made of aluminum, so I should be OK.

I just got back from Home depot, and got the coil wire type bender. They didnt have a simple hand bender that would go to 5/8".