Spiral Tub Bender

thingiverse

I was recently doing a custom computer build in a Thermaltake P90 open frame case with a custom liquid cooling loop and I wanted to create a spiral tube for coolant. I looked into purchasing a laboratory glass spiral tube, but couldn't find something that met my needs, so I decided to bend my own. I created this bending buck to form the spiral. Later design changes meant that I only needed about 1 1/4 loops instead of a long spiral, but this can be used for about any length you want by simply screwing the buck down further as needed. This is for bending 16mm (5/8") OD PETG tubing using a silicone insert during bending (to prevent tube collapse) with a heat gun. Larger spirals might benefit from some other way of heating more of the tubing at once in some sort of oven, but I did OK with just the heat gun going a bit at a time. Take your time and don't rush it, It might get a bit fiddly. I heated the tubing separately and then bent it around the buck so as not to warp the buck with direct heat from the heat gun. I'd love to see picture of tubes you have bent and how they are being used, so please share :)