# Homemade Tools > Basic Homemade Tools and Tips >  Bending hard copper tubing

## Frank S

As anyone who has ever tried to bend hard copper knows, it will do 2 things very well kink sharply and break.
An easy way to solve this little issue is to first soften the copper by heating it to red hot then quenching it in water. Funny thing about copper is quenching has the opposite effect as quenching steel.
then what I did was to make a spiral cut in a piece of pvc tubing that just fit inside of the copper, and slid a pvc conduit forming spring into the plastic pipe and both of those in the copper tube then simply rolled it in a regular EMT/ rigged conduit bender.

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Jon (Mar 25, 2016),

kbalch (Mar 28, 2016)

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## pacheson13

> As anyone who has ever tried to bend hard copper knows, it will do 2 things very well kink sharply and break.
> An easy way to solve this little issue is to first soften the copper by heating it to red hot then quenching it in water. Funny thing about copper is quenching has the opposite effect as quenching steel.
> then what I did was to make a spiral cut in a piece of pvc tubing that just fit inside of the copper, and slid a pvc conduit forming spring into the plastic pipe and both of those in the copper tube then simply rolled it in a regular EMT/ rigged conduit bender.



Excellent idea. I got to try.

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## canzo

Great idea, tried several different ways, never as successful as this.

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## gpete

> As anyone who has ever tried to bend hard copper knows, it will do 2 things very well kink sharply and break.
> An easy way to solve this little issue is to first soften the copper by heating it to red hot then quenching it in water. Funny thing about copper is quenching has the opposite effect as quenching steel.
> then what I did was to make a spiral cut in a piece of pvc tubing that just fit inside of the copper, and slid a pvc conduit forming spring into the plastic pipe and both of those in the copper tube then simply rolled it in a regular EMT/ rigged conduit bender.



 I have many times saved a bent key by your method. Another time I bent a section of 1/8 th copper pipe the same way. I don't think many people know of this.

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## Frank S

> I have many times saved a bent key by your method. Another time I bent a section of 1/8 th copper pipe the same way. I don't think many people know of this.



Just like working with aluminum sheets when making gas tanks for motorcycles I always smoked the sheet a little with my torch by waving the flame without using any oxygen. by warming the sheet to about 250 to 350°f it softened the metal enough to hammer out the shapes on a leather bean bag with a mallet I always welded with the act torch as well with a long dull feather to the flame or what would be termed as a slightly carbonizing flame I didn't have a tig and mig welding left the joints too brittle to suit me.

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## gpete

Acetylene welding is and always has been a viable and sometimes the only way to do some jobs. The vo-tec schools now teach students that it is a brazing method and skip over weldong with it. Tin man technologies in (Washington or Oregon) teaches this as a main stream art. I still have more control with an acet torch than anything else.GP

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