DIY soldering iron plank bender

[Sid Barras]

I’m looking at pictures of the typical soldering iron made into a plank bender that is commercially available. $30 seems too steep for a tool I already have. The tip is the crux of this diy possibility. Has anyone here made one? I’m thinking a round cylinder of aluminium, around 1.5 inch o.d., perhaps 1 inch tall, drilled to accept a typical soldering tip; the two pieces brazed/soldered as one would a copper pipe to a fitting, using a propane torch and whatever type solder a plumber would use for high heat-proof situations. Any thoughts from the ‘been there’ folks?

 

[Y.T.]

I never did DIY plank bender but I would like to alert you that with design you described you will be only able to do minimum 1.5" OD bends. You will find our you need much steeper bends too. I own a bender as shown on attached picture. I paid $50 US for it and I never regretted. It is out of production so a place to get it is hunt for used one on eBay.

 

[Uwek]

I never did DIY plank bender but I would like to alert you that with design you described you will be only able to do minimum 1.5" OD bends. You will find our you need much steeper bends too. I own a bender as shown on attached picture. I paid $50 US for it and I never regretted. It is out of production so a place to get it is hunt for used one on eBay.


View attachment 103870

It is the "old" plank bender from Aeropiccola, or?

Amati revised the system later and produce this version


I would like to see more about the Sid-idea - do you have a small sketch by hand? Would be much easier to understand the idea

 

[mstritzl]

I use the Bender from G.K.Modellbau Germany, both of these "heads" work very well, though I use 3003 more often - both the tip and the rounded side:
Biegesystem 3000


also found a video - unfortunately german, but a picture is more than a tousand words

Biegesystem 3000

 

[Norway]

Slightly poor picture quality, but very educational video