Spiraling a brass tube?

[rocky79]

Does anyone know how to spiral a brass tube? the tube should come out like a spring, is there a tool for that?
I am looking at 1 " diameter helix tube.

Thanks

[vintage1]

easier to wind a strip of shim I would have thought?

Orherwise its something a lathe can do, but its non trivial

[rocky79]

easier to wind a strip of shim I would have thought?

Orherwise its something a lathe can do, but its non trivial

I figured with heating it becomes much easier to bend.

[Zlatko]

Hi Rocky,

For a 1/2" copper pipe I packed the pipe with fine sand and then bent it by hand to prevent crushing it.
I havent tried small brass tubing but you could try that method and see if it works.

Cheers

[rocky79]

Hi Rocky,

For a 1/2" copper pipe I packed the pipe with fine sand and then bent it by hand to prevent crushing it.
I havent tried small brass tubing but you could try that method and see if it works.

Cheers
Thanks Zlatko, i tried the heating method and the brass tube became soft afterwards and easier to shape around a cylinder...very cool

[vintage1]

My apologies..I thought you wanted to CUT the tube into a spiral, not form it as a spiral..

You've had the answers to that..anneal, sand fill, and wind...

[pilotpete2]

Hey Rocky,
Be honest with us, what are you planning to brew with that still your'e making, homebrew glow fuel :confused: :D
Cheers,
Pete

[dburley]

Tubing can be bent in unusual shapes with success by filling first with a low
temperature alloy. The tube should be anealed first as mentioned and then
filled with Cerabend which will melt in boiling water. For very small tubes
like 1/16 or so you might need a header of sorts above the tube to provide
the pressure to overcome the surface tension of the liguid metal which may
make flowing down the small bore difficult.

[ImaBiggles]

Tubing can be bent in unusual shapes with success by filling first with a low
temperature alloy. The tube should be anealed first as mentioned and then
filled with Cerabend which will melt in boiling water. For very small tubes
like 1/16 or so you might need a header of sorts above the tube to provide
the pressure to overcome the surface tension of the liguid metal which may
make flowing down the small bore difficult.

dude, thats cool but fine silica sand works too. Fill it while vibrating it- I use my plastic nubbed drill chuck. Never coiled tube for a hobby, but I do it at work (monel, SS tight coils, brass, copper).

[rocky79]

Hey Rocky,
Be honest with us, what are you planning to brew with that still your'e making, homebrew glow fuel :confused: :D
Cheers,
Pete
lol...i am trying to make little fog machine :)

[rocky79]

Tubing can be bent in unusual shapes with success by filling first with a low
temperature alloy. The tube should be anealed first as mentioned and then
filled with Cerabend which will melt in boiling water. For very small tubes
like 1/16 or so you might need a header of sorts above the tube to provide
the pressure to overcome the surface tension of the liguid metal which may
make flowing down the small bore difficult.

Dburley,
Thanks for the tip. The cerrobend sounds interesting to try. I used 1/16 brass tube and it did bend fine with heating without an kinks. i was surprised how easily it did wrap around.

[leif-mindy]

You can try putting the tube in a spring. This can help to eliminate kinks.

[Tomapowa]

FWIW: With smaller diameter tubing, I insert a pc. of metal flex cable (ie. Sullivan, etc...) into the tube, heat the tube (boiling water) then bend around a cylinder (or in my case, an OS 91 pumper header pipe). After bending, I pulled out the flex cable (sometimes difficult if too many bends). This spiraled tubing is used to pre-heat smoke fluid prior to injecting into the muffler... (see pic)

[village_idiot]

BTW, you don't want brass tube for that still, copper is the correct material for a few different reasons.

[AndyKunz]

Maybe THIS THREAD is why copper prices have gone through the roof! RCGroups has turned into a moonshiner's haven.

Andy

[pilotpete2]

Andy,
I live just off US 5, just about 35 miles south of the border, major bootlegging route during prohibition, old timers tell some wild stories, of course just like the "hootch", they improve with age :D
Pete, formerly from Exit 67 ;)

[AreYouSeeMe]

Short on time so I've not read anything too deeply into your post.

A search for 'metal bellows'


I get regular magazines which have a supplier of miniature..
I mean super tiny, metal bellows. Not what you want but
still something to look at.

http://images.google.com/images?num=100&hl=en&safe=off&client=opera&rls=en&hs=Tje&q=miniature+metal+bellows&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi

That's the google images.. Are any of these what you have in mind?

I've used these made from metal. There's two styles one might be cheaper.

Their purpose is to allow two misaligned shafts to be turned without
worrying about their alignment. Although the shafts must face each other
they don't need to be in the same plane.

The first style that's not used anymore much is made from a
flexible "spring". Sorry I can be more clear. The item is
actually a woven metal cable which will bend back and
forth but not in a rotary fashion. So there's no backlash.
I know I've seen the material that makes up the woven "spring"
but I can't for the life of me remember where I've seen it.
I know.. It's similar to speedometer cable. : )

The 2nd type is like what you'll see in the link above.
They are relatively cheap at $5 to $10 for sizes in the
1" x 2" range .

Tell us more about your project
Does anyone know how to spiral a brass tube? the tube should come out like a spring, is there a tool for that?
I am looking at 1 " diameter helix tube.

Thanks