Bending Schedule 40 PVC pipe ?

[johnnylight]

You are all correct to say it has to be heated.
I saw the same show this weekend on a show called-- Cool Tools--
The spring mentioned was used to help bend the pipe after it was heated..

 

[johnnylight]

I have to correct myself I did some research without heat and this is what I found:Pipe Viper Bend PVC and Conduit

This one is different from the one in the show.

 

[Jimbrown]

Well its gonna take one strong dude to bend a piece of 2 in schedule 40.

 

[SLOBuds]

Doesn't that change the structural qualities of the PVC??? That you won't get Schedule 40 performance after a Schedule 40 PVC pipe has been processed in one of these ways???

It just seems to me that either heating or brute-force bending will weaken the PVC and therefore make the performance spec less than original. Similar to heating metal versus what happens to the metal's hardness.

So, if you cold-bend the PVC, you will end up with stretched material on one side at least. Same with heat-bend, but probably leading to more consistency than cold-bend.

Well anyway, I don't get how this works and leaves the same performance as how the PVC came from the factory. And I'd guess that Building Departments would have the same reservation.

 

[jdfire]

After watching the video I notice two things: 1) They don't actually show him removing the tool from the pipe. You see him give an initial tug, but never see the tool come out. I bet it's stuck in there pretty good. 2) At the bend the pipe seems to have flattened out somewhat. I doubt that the full diameter is maintained throughout the radius. Just my two cents.

 

[kmdigital]

Talking about heating PVC pipe, last summer I was in Ecuador doing some plumbing on restrooms for a church. Their PVC pipe for drainage is about 1/2 as thick as our SDR 35 pipe, which is about 1/2 as thick as Sch 40.

Anyway, they don't have couplings for drainage pipe, other then one end having a bell on it from the factory. Other than that, you can't buy couplings anywhere. What they do is take a piece of paper, like part of a cement bag, light it on fire, and use it to heat the end of the pipe where you want another bell. You keep heating and rotating it until it gets pretty soft, and then force it over the end of another peice of pipe and keep turning these until it gets pretty stiff, and then pull them apart. If you don't take them apart, the male pipe will heat up and be compressed. After it cools, you glue the new female hub on the pipe or fitting, and you're done. Works pretty well actually, and saves the cost of couplings! But it would never pass any kinds of codes in most of the U.S.!

When the average wage is only $10 - $20 per day, and with PVC pipe and fittings costing almost as much as in the U.S., you don't spend a couple of bucks on fittings that you can certainly do without!

 

[RalphVa]

When you need to bend or curve around objects, the best pipe to use outside is poly pipe like they run from well pumps. This is what I used when connecting to the mail when they put us on city water in Baton Rouge. Had to snake around the basketball pole.

You can convert from poly to PVC and back to poly, if you want PVC. However, the poly pipe is about the toughest stuff around. I've even hung it on my brush hog a couple times and haven't broken it, where I have it laid along the top of the ground. This is where nearly all the 1100 to 1200' of it is from my rain tanks here at the house down to the garden and over to a little stream.

Ralph

 

[Deerlope]

I have been a plumber for over 30 years. All I can say is " ain't no way". You have to heat it very carefully. Pluging the ends and filling with sand will do pretty much the same thing if heated. What is the reason for bending anyway? There are conduit bends for conduit and 90s 45s etc for plumbing.

As an electrian I have bent pvc up to 2" by putting an air tight rubber expandsion plug in each end and heating it in a heater box. The pipe sits on rollers and the heat is made with electric elements. As the pipe heats you have to turn it very slowly and a gas build inside the pvc to keep it from kinking when bending.

 

[Lasgambler]

When you need to bend or curve around objects, the best pipe to use outside is poly pipe like they run from well pumps.

You can convert from poly to PVC and back to poly, if you want PVC.

Ralph

I was hoping someone would mention Poly pipe. That is all I use for supply from wells to new home construction. Does not matter how crooked I did my ditch, Poly pipe is the way to go.

 

[G McCall]

When you need to bend or curve around objects, the best pipe to use outside is poly pipe like they run from well pumps. This is what I used when connecting to the mail when they put us on city water in Baton Rouge. Had to snake around the basketball pole.

You can convert from poly to PVC and back to poly, if you want PVC. However, the poly pipe is about the toughest stuff around. I've even hung it on my brush hog a couple times and haven't broken it, where I have it laid along the top of the ground. This is where nearly all the 1100 to 1200' of it is from my rain tanks here at the house down to the garden and over to a little stream.

Ralph

Where do you buy the Poly Pipe? I assume it is for drinking.