Prepper Tip- Bending copper tubing with ICE!
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2024
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Sharing an old trick I learned about bending copper tubing without kinking it.
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The first time I watched this video, you had just posted it and I was a flight attendant with the dream of having a campground...now it’s July 2021, and I can FINALLY use this information in the primitive campground shower we are building. Been following you for years Scott - thank you for all you’ve posted over the years =)
That is awesome! Enjoy your campground and your hot shower!
Well? How did your moonshine turnout on your 'campground'?
I use this method to wrap 50 feet of 5/8" OD type L copper tubing around 5" OD steel pipe. It works like a charm. Be warned though.... I'm a pretty well built guy and this is quite an arm and shoulder workout. Also work quickly. Once the ice starts melting, the tubing will start to crush like an oval until it finally just kinks.
Yep, I have bent with sand but it is not as easy to fill or guarantee a uniform fill plus the clean out is much easier with water. Thanks for watching.
This is exactly why I love UA-cam! I would never have thought of this trick, and it's something I've been trying to do over and over with no success. Thanks for posting this, it's brilliant!
Duuuude, this technique is AWESOME! What's even more awesome, is when I tell people who are supposedly "in the know" that this is possible; and they tell me straight-up that I'm fantasising and need hundreds of dollars of tools to achieve the same effect; I can put this on my mobile phone, give it to them, then sit back and laugh (and laugh and laugh & laugh). Thanks so much for sharing. :)
I built a penstock - pipeline - for a hydro power installation using 'yellowmine' pipe. It is perhaps schedule 120 pvc and impact resistant. Very heavy. I taught myself to bend this monster pipe for small curves around boulders by duct taping and using a caulk type sealant inside endcaps reserved for this purpose. Once you have capped the pipe use a propane hand weed burner and carefully heat the pipe at the area of the bend. I laid it out in the dirt and had two helpers. The air pressure builds inside the pipe and it cannot collapse as the slow bends are made. Went to 45' a few times! Wish I had made a video of it now. Watch out when the end caps blast off when the tape is released.
I made a 1/2" copper coil to replace one in a wall mounted drinking fountain. Rolled it around 6" pvc sch-40. C-Clamped it, then I used my turbo torch & silver soldered a small spot between coils on each end to prevent expansion. Soldered a 1/4" tubing inside it for the temp probe, then I rolled 1/4" tubing in between the 1/2" coils for my Freon line also silver soldered. Then I slipped a small plastic bag around it & filled it with expando foam. circa 1988. Never had issues with tubing crimping.
Wax works well too , I used to make chrome 3 - 4 foot headers for hotrods I`d fill the pipes with 2" lead bars bend them on the machine slowly then melt the lead I`ll tell you the look on the owners face as they are being made is priceless .
The direction of the spiral matters if you're pouring liquid through it to consume or use on self. Clockwise is positive (beneficial-pulling energy inwards) and counterclockwise is negative (harmful-pushing energy away). This is based in Native American, pendulum dowsing, and ancient knowledge.
WOW - Someone who understand the laws of nature. good point
You have a nice manner about you and useful info. Thanks for posting.
I tried this with a short length of pipe . First go not the best , 2nd attempt was perfect. Just what I needed. I even had ppl say it wouldn’t work. Thanks so much for sharing this information.
Neat trick. Don't think I'vr ever seen it done. Thanks for the tip.
Excellent job man!I've used sand a few times and it works but need compressed air to clean out after.this looks like a much cleaner way to accomplish same thing.thanks again.
I'm back to say that plain Morton salt works too if your copper tube is no longer a coil and can't fit in the freezer. You'll need a small funnel. I used an air compressor to blow the salt out of the tube. You may want to tape a sock on the end to catch the salt instead of making a salty mess like I did.
Hey I don't own an air compressor so I tried to run water through it and the salt simply doesn't want to come out! any suggestions?
Eric you're SO smart. I was thinking, damn I don't have any fine sand. SALT! What a good idea.
I think this process is way easier than filling the pipe with sand. Great time saver. Thank you very much for showing. Thumbs up.
I've heard about doing this by filling the tube with sand. The ice idea looks simpler and faster. Very cool, and thanks for the tip.
How hard really to feel up tube with the sand or salt, even without a funnel.
And it doesn't melt if you are slow or distracted.
Hmmm, 24 hours to freeze (and risk rupturing the copper tube) isn’t fast. In industry this is done using fine kiln dried sand like used for block paving top dressing. Ultra quick and will not harm the copper pipe.
Sweet! K.I.S.S. works best. Simplicity at it's best.
Engineer775 excellent video I use sand which works great like ice but you don't suffer cold hands. In the 1965 movie "Flight of the Phoenix" The German airplane model maker, played by Hardy Kruger, was bending tubing by packing sand in the tube. He was constructing a condenser to collect water moisture from the night air of the desert.
Thanks for that. I am in the process of making a flue gas heat exchanger and you saved me a lot of wasted pipe.
You're a genius! It's cold rolled copper!
"Fill it, Freeze it, Bend it, Done!"
Nice tip! Thank you!!
I gotta say, I’ve been a plumber for 21yrs and I’ve never heard of this before. Very cool!
sweet! i watch your videos, and I say to myself, it would have been nice to work alongside you in the field. I could have learned alot. Awesome stuff on your channel! Thanks
Wort chiller made cheap, beer hobbyists love these
After looking at numerous ways to bend tubing in a small diameter without bending the tubing this way is so simple and my answer. I'm going to try it on a 100' 1/2" stainless coil and it should work fine.
brilliant!..thanks for the great educational video..I always used sand to do this ..never thought of using ice....
Water also works as long as you get all the air out and either crimp the ends tightly or flatten and solder the end closed.solder the end closed.
My father in law worked at Conn musical instruments (Elkhart, IN) in the early 1930’s through until WW2 started, where they made trumpets snd other brass instruments
He told me they bent the tubing by filling with hot tar, letting it set up, bending the tubing, snd then heating it up to remove the tar.
BtW he was working when Tommy Dorsey came by to buy new instruments for his band. He got bold and asked Tommy if he would come to his high school senior prom and play which occurred about the time the order he was making for the instruments would be ready.
Tommy Dorsey said yes and for free plated that high school senior prom the year before WW2 started
nice, with jewelry ferrous and nonferrous metals I've used sand, taped off the ends, depending on how thick the walls are one can use a raw hide mallet, that copper tubing seems to be soft as if it was annealed,
I'll have to try this next winter when I can leave the pipe outside to freeze. Perfect for loop antennas.
Nice tip as I am going to build a wood heated hotwater tank from a small potbelly stove that I am making from a propane tank...very good tip....and really liked your hot water siphoning video...pay no attention to the fools that commented negatively on the video. I LIKED IT.
Just discovered this channel.The man is superb.
I had to make a sharp bend in a short length of copper pipe when replacing a water heater in my RV last year. I had a tubing bender, but it was still cracking and crimping. I ended up using some scrap 14-2 wire. I packed the pipe with the wire (still in the inner insulation but stripped out of the white plastic outer casing), then used the tubing bender. Worked like a charm. I'm not sure if the freezing would work on a short length, but I might try it someday. :)
Awesome tip. Thank you VERY much! I've been thinking about making a rocket stove water heater like the one you made I just couldn't quite wrap my mind around how to make the coil/heat exchanger part. Now I know, thanks to you.
I want to build the same design rocket heater to heat the water in my hot tub.
Thank you for the video 11 years ago. I was about to loose my mind trying to coil some 1/2” with out kinks
You've shown that I'm never too old too learn a new trick. Great idea!!
you can do the same thing by filling the tubing with sand but sand is a lot more difficult to blow out so your ice method is GREAT...Thanks
i have done this before without ice or sand, there were no kinks. When you use that type of copper it is soft enough not to kink. One guy held the copper and kept it aligned whilst the other twisted it onto a stove pipe, just keep the coils tight!
Try it with 4" and it will kink. A 6" stove pipe is a big enough diameter to keep it from kinking.
I have used 4" before, i think the trick was to pull it as tight as possible and keep the tube close to the pipe, to be honest it was many years ago, since then the copper has been removed (twice over) very annoying as it's not easy to find cheep. The other pieces had been donated by the local tip and from a friends camping heater, where he had wrapped it around his gas heater to get hot water in his van, that one was a real mess as it was already kinked and wrapped around a rectangular stove, we didn't think it would go on without cracking, however even after all the abuse it did wrap on fairly well and no leaks! Flow was a little restricted but it didn't matter at those temperatures. Keep up the good work, i'm sure i will use the ice or sand trick next time just to be sure. Great tip.
engineer775 Practical Preppers will it work with the thinner 3/8 copper tubing we're seeing today I used to bend the thicker 3/8 copper tubing around a fuel filter to make a heat exchanger to run veggie oil for my diesel
+izzzzzz6 depending on how tight the coil is.
Yes but i was going onto one of the smallest stove pipes available and it was fine. If the copper is the bendy type that is designed to be bent easily and it is a fresh roll the trick is keeping the tension between the two people, it's not that easy and helps if its two strong guys but it is possible. I held the stove pipe whilst my friend fed me the pipe, we tried to keep the coils as tight as possible. To be honest i can only max out at 20C water temp in my small radiator circuit. I am going to take the section i made and enclose it inside a larger stove pipe, allowing some of the flame to go between the two different diameter pipes. Hopefully this will give me an extra 10-20C
Great stuff mate.
Greetings from Melbourne, Australia.
By the way Electricians used to put sand inside Rigid metal conduits to bend it years ago. and cap off the ends while the sand was filled inside of it if they had to make field bends decades ago the pipe would not crush or kink! Great tips sir!
Use soapy water! You would have problems if you started off with straight pipe and wanted to make sharper bends, because the ice breaks inside and leaves the pipe walls unsupported. So to do this properly, you should add soap to the water before freezing, and that makes the ice flexible!
Is that a real thing? Ice can be flexible?
huh? no. thats just nonsense. you WANT the water to completely freeze, if it doesnt then the pipe will not bend evenly and end up pinching.
Fine grain sand or table salt is my preference. But you can't have TOO MANY ideas (that work) floating around in your noggin'!
Hey! have you done it with salt? I just did a 3/8' coil with 1 1/2 inch tube the problem is the salt is not coming out need help! any ideas in how to fix it?
@@jasonstatham6674 What size is 3/8' with 1 1/2 inch tube? Is that 3/8" I.D. tubing? Reply back with how you got the salt out. It seems to be a major problem. I think you need to use an air compressor and keep the salt totally 100% dry, and also you should use regular salt with calcium silicate in it, or some other anti-clumping additive. Pure salt clumps together when it hits moisture, and adding water probably makes it clog up. I think a dry air compressor is what others are using, but I've never tried the salt myself.
That's a cool idea. Sand works too if you don't have refrigeration.
Congratulations! You now have a copper worm! I'm gonna do this for my still! Thank you!
What an AWESOME tip, sir!
I was just watching a guy trying with different things, like vardboard, and wooden things - but that idea there was just ingenious! Thanks!!! I'm gonna make quite a few copper coils this summer, getting ready for next winter! :))
Great idea! I would have bet money, that copper tubing would split open at some point. Thanks for showing me this can be done.
White fine grain "sandbox" play sand works great and is reuseable to boot.. And or use a round tip mandrel just a lil smaller than the id of the copper tube. Can use rebar or whatever steel u can find. Work the mandrel out of the tube by hand while bending. Works great too..
Great vids btw!
This would have been a great piece of knowledge for me to have had when I made my wort chiller for brewing beer!
Thanks! I am sharing your videos in several groups and social media sites.
Thank you very much Engineer775! I just finished to bend a 18mm (0.7in) copper pipe into a spiral! I tried with water and sand (salt too expensive! ;-) ) but no success at all. Maybe I was making something wrong... But with your tip I succeed! Thanks a lot again!
My grandfather told be when they would make still they would fill the cooper tube with sugar sand to bend it but it was a pain to rinse all the sand out. I have also heard the water from a few coal miners but had never seen it done before.
I agree with you,his way is more complicated than it needs to be. Very warm sand is great for bendind PVC.Also I have found ridgid tubing with aluminun fins[made for hydronic heating] works great as a condesation line. I'm an old grey fart myself.lol.
I managed to coil 1/4 inch tubing in a coil that is 1.5in outside diameter for a project. The ice method didint work for me. I ended up straightening out 25 feet of tubing, taping one end shut and filled it with salt (it took awhile) But when I coiled it around a broom handle it didint kink at all. When I was done I just clamped a hose to the coil and ran water through it. Eventually the salt dissolves and you have a perfect coil.
This is great if you're building a still...
To desalinate salt water and make it drinkable. I bent my coil using sand, but I'm definetly making another one this way. Living in Florida on the coast, most of the water around me is salt, so having a mini-still made from an aluminum canteen and copper coil is one of the necessities in my go bag.
The channel Nighthawkinlight here on YT has a good video on making one if you are interested.
Sand maybe difficult to get out of a tight coil and would get messy.
This is clean, can be done even in an apartment home. Thanks..
Geee My hubby and I think that was a smooth tip.. Its really pretty, I was just thinking like a girl wondering how it could be used for art work, 30 yrs ago I took some old barbed wire on my llama ranch, and made a Christmas wreath that still hangs on my porch way today... . Thanks PrepperDino
dude thats awesome , you have just made my day with this trick ,thankyou
Glad its useful! Thanks!
That is utterly brilliant! I am going to give this a try. Thank you!
You sir are the man, thank you for the education.
Well, that's something I didn't know... nice when something GOOD is gained from UA-cam!
Thanks brother, that info could come in handy.
I don't want to be a wise-ass, but I coil copper tubes daily and it is quite easy to bend copper tubing when the diameter around which the copper tube is to be bent is more than 6 times the diameter of the copper tubing. When the diameter of the coil is more than 6 times the diameter of the tube you do not need to fill the tube with anything. Just roll the copper tubing around a pipe with suitable diameter by hand. It is easy and the coils will not collapse and do not need any support. Cheers.
Scott, your videos are the only videos I "like" before I even watch them, great stuff man! You are the Prepper god. When are you gonna write the Prepper bible for all of us loyal devotees?
man i have watched a number of your videos and let me just say you ARE the man thank you for great videos
thats a great tip tried sand and springs but that looks so easy
Great idea dear mate. I was always in trouble due to kinky coil.
Thanks for the tip!
In the past on shorter pieces we used sand to do the same thing.At the time we were much closer to massice amounts sand than a freezer unit.
You learn a lot when you sub to the right people and avoid the kitten videos.
thx for the tip.
Bending a coil with this tip,easy and good thinking
Wow look and you shall find, I was just looking into building me a wort chiller for my home brew and here you go I did not Evan need to look it up..
great idea! next heat exchanger I build will be much easier... thank you!
just fill with water then cap both ends with the rubber cap the tubing you bought came with. you can put hose camps over the rubber caps if you want. you can use any liquid because you can not compress it, there will be a little spring back without freezing it but its a lot faster; no kink tip.
An add-on tip, is to freeze soapy water in the tube. It will help lubricate, while bending, making work easer.... Good luck... Jim...
thanks for the tips il be doing this for a flue water heater thanks again
warm/hot sand works also fore electricians plastic pipe just sand is the old school bending version.
If this is a SHTF situation, you might not have ice until you have a coil to chill with: catch 22! So, it's a great tip, but my advice is you should also practice with sand for when you have to use it or can't wait for ice.
i think that's why it's a Preppers channel
A little dash of dish soap in with the water helps it bend a little easier.
Nice,I was surprised that it coiled so nicely without springing back.
nothing short of elegant!
Thanks for the great tip. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best.
For a couple-three feet of tubing, sand works great. 10-12 feet or more, not so much
When using sand, first you've got to straighten out the tubing, or you'll never get it filled evenly, and it WILL deform wherever there are void spaces, or not packed tight enough
And if your working in a confined space, making the bends from straight tubing can be problematic
Then there's the hassle of purging ALL the sand from the tubing, while ice water is easily blown clear, even without an air compressor
I recommend pig blood, you can buy it at any grocery store, and works wonders making coils.
GREAT VID!!!!! Thanks a lot for sharing!!! (10 years later).
Great job on the coil, I never even thought of using water/ ice
Very nicely done, Brother. - Mike
You'd be a handy guy to have around the house...Good idea.
hey engineer 775, great tips on bending copper. i never would have thought to use ice. i learneed something knew for myself and a future project im working on. And hey tell the camera lady, awsome job on getting in there and staying on the action. Once again thanks for the tips.
If you're building a refrigeration system and plan to use the pipe as your suction line or liquid line, make sure you purge the line thoroughly with nitrogen. I've used salt in a pipe before to achieve this, never water/ice.
Exactly what I was looking for!!! Mahalo plenty engineer775 for you great help!!
good idea. I've heard of using salt before but I like this idea better
"One of those could be making a still."
lol!
HAHAHA!!!!!!! BRILLIANT !!!!!!!!! Using mine for making beer
Nice, I like your idea and there was very little if any sprimgback.
simple version -the reason it doesnt kink it the ice is like a support in the copper tube and burning it makes it weaker
Sand and duct tape on the ends, have reshaped 1" steel tubing without kinks. Ice should work fine too, if you have freezer space.
This is wayyy more convenient.. I had to drive to home depot and buy sand just now, even worst I had to run it through a screen to get the big rocks(1/4") out. Wish I had seen this video first.
Video very well done. Pleasant to listen to. Thanks much
so... im actually working on this lil project you recorded. having a problem deciding what parts to get from hard ware store as far as building the actual housing for the heater.
Excellent tip, Just at the right time, thank you very much mate.
The comment "Fill it with sand" makes perfect sense. this chap is using a roll of soft copper which bends easy, and fits in a freezer, what if you had a straight 3 or 6 meter length of standard plumbing copper, how would you get that in the freezer, instead fill it with sand tap and shake it very well seal both ends (compression fittings possibly) and then put it over you knee and when you bend it the sand stops the pipe from kinking ( if its packed tight enough).
old timers used sand -heated rigid "STICK" "PIPE" in bed of coals,then rapped around barrel or stump
Yeehaw let's cook us some corn squeezins down in the holler!