Bending a 90 in chrome!!??

[spanner]

Just a quick need of your advise.!! Is it advisable to make a 90 degree bend in copper chrome tube?? anyone..!

 

[Paulplumb]

Hardly done much work in Chrome but if I put a big bend in Chrome it tends to crazy pave. Maybe I should blow torch it first??

 

[REDSAW]

no, 45 degree will crack it.
use elbow or better still stainless steel.

 

[tamz]

The chrome , like everything else is not made like it once was. It will crack on a 90.
Stainless will bend anywhere but is not as bright.

 

[Dan]

Chrome tile trim crazes at 5 degrees and cracks at more than 15ish. A circular tube in theory would have even less of a chance as one side stretches as much as the other is compressed, so there is double the force on the bit between. Tile trim's pretty much flat in comparison and there should be less force.

Might be the beer talking.

 

[tamz]

25 years ago you would have been able to bend a 90 on chrome without a crack. Times have changed tho and stuff is not made as it once was.

On a side note: I did a job for an old dear last month and her (now dead) man was a plumber. While i was there she said "there are lots of plumbing fittings in the garage. If they are any use just take them"
I had a look (as you do), and found an old Euramo and a 180 Smc Commodore pump (i'll fit them in some rented place somewhere) and a half dozen boxes of Yorkies. The old yorKies (from the 70's) are twice as heavy as they are now. I knew they were thinner but really never noticed how much.

 

[ferret]

25 years ago you would have been able to bend a 90 on chrome without a crack. Times have changed tho and stuff is not made as it once was.

On a side note: I did a job for an old dear last month and her (now dead) man was a plumber. While i was there she said "there are lots of plumbing fittings in the garage. If they are any use just take them"
I had a look (as you do), and found an old Euramo and a 180 Smc Commodore pump (i'll fit them in some rented place somewhere) and a half dozen boxes of Yorkies. The old yorKies (from the 70's) are twice as heavy as they are now. I knew they were thinner but really never noticed how much.

yeah tamz and do you remember the 75mm up brass yorkies with the solder ring that was sperate from the fitting , that took about 20mins per joint to clean fit together and solder , oh happy days ,real pipefitting eh ......

 

[Toddyplumb]

75mm that would be 3" LOl
Bigest pipes I ever worked on were 54"

 

[kirkgas]

75mm that would be 3" LOl
Bigest pipes I ever worked on were 54"

54" thats nothing, i have worked on hundreds of pipes that were 10' long

 

[Derrick229]

I just bent a dog leg in chrome pipe, no cracking, no crazing, looks fine (for a shower, I suppose it depends where you buy it and the quality of the chrome)

Biggest pipe I worked on was 54 inch fire main cast iron, then ductile pipe, push fit fittings with gripper rings (werent a domestic fitting though, that was fire main) all part of the ring main around LHR

 

[princegoose]

Ive bent 45's in chrome and the pipe was fine, suprised myself, worth a go. used chrome compression fittings for the 90s though, didnt try bends.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

i have pulled them in the past but as said chrome pipe tends to be table x instead of table y it just flakes off or snaps

 

[REDSAW]

the chrome will crack.

what will confuse is the nickel shinning through the crack giving the impression that it has not. only in time will this go dull and start to corrode to verdigre.
this is also why during fabrication, all items are bent first then sent to the metal finishers for chroming. a company that my family owned some years back, used to send around 5 tons to be plated every 4 months of varying dimensions, all bent first and the thicker the grade of chrome- the more it cracked when stressed in use.

 

[tamz]

yeah tamz and do you remember the 75mm up brass yorkies with the solder ring that was sperate from the fitting , that took about 20mins per joint to clean fit together and solder , oh happy days ,real pipefitting eh ......

Bet you were on the steel wool and "geez" duty then? I know i was

 

[princegoose]

did the bends on the chrome pipe 5 years ago and theyre still nice and shiny, i must have been lucky.

 

[spanner]

Mate llol!! this threads been going for a while but getting to the point your a bender mate llol!! not only did I try but as they said they don't make the chrome pipes like they use to,, and staring at my ones and had to use them as they were far 2oo pricey to throw away at just under £20 per 3m legnth looks just like LCS ....! llol
Oh well wish you the best of luck on your benders mate!!!

ThankS

 

[REDSAW]

pardon?

 

[fuzzy]

use a compression elbow in chrome, that how i do the 90's in chrome