tight radius stainless steel mandrel bends?
 

i am looking for some 2.5" OD stainless mandrel bends that have a radius of 3" or smaller
the thing is i cant find any that small
but i've seen them that small before, so i know they exist

can anybody help me out here?

thank you

There's very little available in terms of mandrel bent tubing with short radii. The simple fact is, there's only so tight you can make the bends before the tubing distorts or cracks.

Just use cast weld-els, often called "ornamental stainless tubing". Available from most tubing suppliers (Yellow Pages).

Might check here http://www.burnsstainless.com/index.htm

What a sec...I just realized the original poster is asking for mandrel bends of 2.5" tubing with a radius of 3" or smaller...That's damn near impossible. Pre-cast is the only option that won't cost a tonne of money.

http://vibrantperformance.com/catalo...ce9d521335ece8

http://vibrantperformance.com/catalo.../2335_WEBS.jpg

maybe that would work?

thanks guys

I snagged this from the s475 buildup over in the single turbo section:

These mandrel bends are 3" diameter, and appear to have the hell of a tight bend, what looks like a 2.5 radius to me.

he said he got it from a local supplier in sweeden.

so i know its possible, but i have had the hell of a time finding any..

That's SCH 10 pipe. 2.5" SCH 10 pipe is about 2.75" OD. Pipe is measured by ID, tubing by OD.

Those appear to be cast weld els, and are also aluminum. Steel and aluminum are two different metals with different characteristics. Aluminum often has a lot more stretch then steel, depending of course on the exact alloy and heat treat.

As I said, you want "ornamental tubing" weld elds.

wow thanks a lot aaron.

i didn't realize that that's how people were getting those really tight radius bends.

aaron u are right and wrong i have bought them in the past and they are not cheap i have gotten tight radius tubing from racing solutions out of portland oregon and also from burnstainless, the op need to search for doughtnuts is the term they use

why would you weld the piping directly to the compressor housing like that?

dont they have those ones that look like donuts for tight radiai

wow donuts would also suit my needs very well

they also cost a huge amount..

i think i'll be fine with just plain old weld els, they are cheap.