[Farwell]

When I was in my late teens I was a pipe fitter/sheetmetal worker apprentice at the Southern Pacific Railroad repair yard in Sacramento California. One of the Journeyman pipefitters I worked with took a 1-1/4" X8' length of thin wall copper tubing. He soldered a pipe cap on one end and filled the tube with moist black sand. It took quite a while to pack the moist sand to the density that he wanted. I don't remember if he capped the other end or not. Using a brazing rod bent to the shape needed as a pattern, he used a torch to heat the tube and slowly bent the tube into the desired shape. The tube had a couple 180 degree bends in it. I was and am still very impressed.
On another occasion a friend made me a steering wheel out of 1/2 inch water pipe using a torch and a vise to make the circle.
These guys were from the steam engine days when they made everything at the Sacramento yard.
Farwell