I had a few people ask how I measure and bend the stainless steel tubing, so I thought I would post a little more details on the radiator overflow line. I have bent thousands of feet of S/S tubing over the years. Every 55 Fleming yacht commissioned on the east coast I have bent about 80 foot of ½” and ¼” tubing, all by measurements and drawings. I sure there are many different ways to bend S/S tubing but what I have found that works best for me is outside to outside tubing measurements. This is easy when working with 90 degree bends. In the pictures below you’ll see marks on the tubing. One is an parallel orientation line, then a line designating the outside of the tubing after the bend, and the last mark is a U or C (depending on how you look at it) this designate the direction the bend should go.
By using a 45 degree fitting in the neck of the radiator I was able to bend the tubing about 45 degree to start the line. With the first bend close to the flair its best to flare the line 1st as some flaring tools need more room then the bend will leave. You can see two marks in the 3rd picture, 1 marking the where the outside of the tubing will be and the other marking the direction of the bend.
Here I’m using a scrap piece of tubing to mark where I will make the bend, I also measure for the next bend and mark the orientation for this change indirection.
