Hi just joined and the first thing need ask isnt to do with welding. Its is how can i bend 1.5" 10gauge aluminium tube easily without having to buy any expensive tools.
First question is how neatly do you need to do it? There are ways to do it on the bench and get fairly good results. You will need the ability to make up some basic tooling and have a decent steel bench and a mig at your disposal.
only bent ali once,and we used crystals,cap of the pipe on end,heat the crystals till liquid,pour in tube,allow to set,cap off,and bend tube in hydraulic bender,or possibly sand load.
Hi it's only 45 degrees I need bend it, I also need keep the inner diameter the same as being used for intake manifold. The radius is 115mm along center line. What kind of crystals are these you used.
I think you can use parrafin wax (tea lights), melt them in a pot, cap the tube and fill it with wax, let it set then bend, then put it in the oven in a pan to melt the wax out again.
kiln dried sand,make sure sand is dry before using,cap one end fill with sand,tap side of pipe,add more sand,tap again,fill,cap off,if you are only pulling a 45,then you can use a bender.
115mm is around 4 1/2" CLR (Centre Line Radius) and that's quite tight for 1 1/2" OD.
Ally tube usually needs to be annealed to get it to bend happily on "standard" radii, and that's tighter than "standard" for that OD.
Probably less hassle to lobster back it.
But...
4 1/2", 4 1/4" CLR is about normal for 1 1/4" tube. 10 gauge is about 1/8", so you have around a 1 1/4" hole down the middle of your 1 1/2" OD 10 gauge tube.
If you can get hold of a 45 degree bend in 1 1/4" tube you could form the upper and lower halves of an ally bend over it and have the weld seam in the direction of flow.