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Well the steel heater pipe on my 1996 VZJ95 has suffered bad electrolysis and is proving difficult to source new. Consequently I made one.
The original is 17mm OD and the nearest I could get locally is 16mm galvanised tube from Bunnings, 1.2mm wall thickness. So first I made a swage to open the ends up to 17mm.
Next, the original tube is a mandrel bend about 25mm radius. So I turned up a round die on the lathe and made a straight die for maximum support when bending.
I filled the tube with lead to prevent collapse and bent it OK.
I then made the tube water seal beading using internal crimp dies held in a vice while the tube was indexed around a bit on each crush.
It came up pretty good in my opinion. I just need to weld on a bracket tomorrow.
I plan on using a similar technique for oil hoses and even custom diesel fuel hose bends on my troopy when I install a pre-filter.
Cheers,
Rob
The original is 17mm OD and the nearest I could get locally is 16mm galvanised tube from Bunnings, 1.2mm wall thickness. So first I made a swage to open the ends up to 17mm.
Next, the original tube is a mandrel bend about 25mm radius. So I turned up a round die on the lathe and made a straight die for maximum support when bending.
I filled the tube with lead to prevent collapse and bent it OK.
I then made the tube water seal beading using internal crimp dies held in a vice while the tube was indexed around a bit on each crush.
It came up pretty good in my opinion. I just need to weld on a bracket tomorrow.
I plan on using a similar technique for oil hoses and even custom diesel fuel hose bends on my troopy when I install a pre-filter.
Cheers,
Rob