Hello,

I am looking for a way to bend a pvc (grey, plastic, used as drain pipes or as electrical wires conduit) pipe. The pipe's size: bore is about 10 cm; wall thickness about 2 mm; length about 2 m. I would like to bend this hose into an arc with radius about 1 m.

After heating the pipe with a gas torch I started bending it but the pipe buckles.
I filled the pipe with sand, heated it with a gas torch but the same problem arose.

Is there a 'trick' to prevent those buckling 'wrinkles'?

Thanks for any advice.

Frank V., January 2010

10cm? Thats 4" soil pipe! good luck with that pal. If it is 10cm bore then try 2x 90 or 4x135 degree bends.

BARBEARIAN, January 2010

I have used plumber's Barrier Pipe - plastic 15mm water pipe - a substitute for copper - to construct a hoop house system over my raised beds in the garden - covered, not that it matters with horticultural fleece. The diameter is about 48" so the rdaius is about 600mm. The end fixings are just a half inch hole in the wooden frame of the raised bed. I did not need to heat the pipe to bend it because it's flexible. When I remove it from the bed the bends remain much as they were. A heavy fall of snow collapses the hoop house but as the snow melts it quickly returns to its original profile.

Consider Barrier Pipe - I bought 50M for about £35 from Screwfix.

Good luck...

Peccavi, January 2010