So I came across this insane video. For most of the people I talk to, welding is just how to stick two pieces of metal together and stay. This video essentially shows with good TIG skills, he doesn’t need a tube bender. Really opens the possibilities.
So watching this video I can say, yes, this looks cool… that is it. Warning, I’m about to be a killjoy.
Bending tube is for numerous reasons, but the three main one are for either structural, ‘sealed’ or cost. Structural because you are bending a tube that is not being heated to the point that steel recrystallization is occurring. Steel is an crystalline structure and reheating and cooling steel improperly can cause cracks to occur and make the material weaker than it should be. The entire science of tempering is based off of making sure steel is formed correctly. In the video the person is using aluminum, this can be contaminated far easier than steel making it far weaker than what it was before. Not only this but the ‘elbow’ he made is far thicker than the tube. Instead of having a degree of flexibility in the elbow it is now extremely ridged which if this was done as a patch it could make the device it is going into far more dangerous than it should be.
An example is airplane wings, they need to flex otherwise they will break under turbulence. If an incorrect part is put in that doesn’t allow a wing to flex it can make an airplane less safe to be in as the part needed to have flexibility but instead doesn’t.
‘Sealing’ as I called it is where you have specific parts that have to be bent, this is because the risk of a leak forming is too great. In some cases you have to make multiple bends to make sure that the section of the part is one piece and not multiple ones that could have multiple failure points. Not only this but contamination comes into play again, you don’t know hoe much other gunk is in the weld.
Finally cost. You are going to spend more on argon and filler material than you would on getting an elbow piece and welding the two together.
Welding is primarily putting two pieces of metal together and having them stay. It can be used for artistic work but at the end of the day what was done in this video was for show only, it should never be done for any part or job unless it specifically requires it. If you are wondering there are jobs that require having the material be separated and connected with filler wire but it is for specific jobs that are done by professional welders and inspected by ultrasound, X-ray and then certified by a welding inspector.
Is that a chain saw he’s using to cut the tube?
