Inserting

[Alan .204Participant @alan-204]

Sorry for the title don't know the right words for this so here we go, it will be a while yet before I get the Lathe and the Mill running as i have to build a new workshop and the way the weather is at the moment it could be longer than i thought, I'm a Oil firing boiler engineer and also a plumber the ends of my pipe benders have long gone and when using them they are liable to cut lino floors and also mark wooden floors so i intend to turn some ally stop's to go in the end's of the handles my question is if I put the new plugs in the freezer and warm the tube ends how tight do I make the plugs so they go in but become tight enough not to come out when they come up to the same temp, is there a rule of thumb to follow when doing this with certain types of steel.

Al.

[Alan .204Participant @alan-204]

[Martin CottrellParticipant @martincottrell21329]

Hi Al

Assuming the stops you intend making are purely to protect floors from the exposed ends of the bender frames and are not subject to any mechanical stresses when the benders are in use, I wouldn't bother trying to arrange a heat shrink fit. Just machine your stoppers to be a light push fit into the frame ends and secure with a few drops of high strength loctite.

You don't mention the profile of your bender frame legs but I'm assuming round tubular, as such you may be able to do a google search for various rubber stoppers, such as those fitted to the bottom of walking sticks for instance. These would probably be kinder to Lino & wooden floors and provide better grip than metal stoppers would.

Hope this helps, others will probably come up with alternative solutions!

Regards, Martin.

[Alan .204Participant @alan-204]

Thank's Martin.

Al.

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

Hello Alan,

You could also machine the end caps from suitable size nylon bar, it's cheap and even less likely to mark floors if you chamfer the ends. Make them a little oversize on frame tube outer diameter so that only the nylon is in contact with the floor once fitted.

The insert diameter into the frame needs to have a short reduced diameter section so that they 'start' easily into the tube hole when fitting, just push or tap them home. If you have over machined the spigot wrap a little electricians tape round it to inprove the fit. It is unlikely they will try to walk out

Brian

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