Bend small tubing without kinking
Bending small tubing can be challenging. The thin wall thickness on most small tubing is prone to collapse resulting in the dreaded kinked tube.
Titanium Tubing
Titanium tubing can especially be a problem to bend in a tight radius titanium is an amazing metal; it’s actually an element and not an alloy of steel. It will not corrode and is very strong while remaining lightweight at 45% the weight of steel. It’s twice as strong as aluminum and only 60% heavier. We find it is great for race cars where both weight and strength are key components.
Avoid kinking when bending small tubing
Often we get questions about how to bend small tubing for window frames, parachute mounts, etc. For these types of applications we use 3/8” x .030 wall titanium tubing.
We usually bend it and use it for drag car parachute mounts or drag race car window frames, things of that nature and we got a lot of people telling us they can’t bend tubing that small without it kinking because as the tube reaches 90 degrees it tends to kink.
How to bend small tubing
So what to do when you are bending small diameter tubing? One of the things you can do as a trick is to use vice grips.
Clamp a vice grip on the end of the tube you are bending and set it flush against the tubing bender. Then you just line your mark on the tubing bender and slowly but firmly bend the tube to the desired angle.
The vice grips hold the end of the tubing at the front of the bender and keep the tubing from kinking. It is a simple solution but very effective.
We know this will help your small diameter tube bending giving you flawless window frams and parachute mounts.
Check out our video on bending small tubing without kinking
