bending fuel line

[steve40]

anyone have any tips/advice on bending fuel lines?

trying to run 1/2" feed with copper/nickel tube. i haven't had any luck with the tube wanting to collapse when bending.

[Vimes]

Way back inna dawn 'o time, I used to use my knee to bend tubing. Bend it over a bit, shift, bend a bit, shift back, over and over until either the tube was bent or my knee quit working. It would take forever.
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I have a tube bender like this now. It works OK, but it does take some practice to bend lines accurately without bending. And, speed is not your friend here. Go too fast and the line will try to collapse. Slow, smooth and deliberate movement is the way forward, along with practice tubing. Don't worry about wasting the practice stuff, just toss it in the random bits bin. It'll still be good when you need a short piece or some scrap tubing for something. It's not going to be machine-bent precise either. It's fine when building a driver, but I'd not use it if I were building a showcar.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2026/06/rnb2017_800501007-1.jpg
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One like this, with dedicated dies that spin and also come together all the way around the tube would work better. I rarely need to bend tubing but if I did it a lot I'd likely have a set like this.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2026/06/hb1kit1-1.jpg
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My dad, may he rest in peace, said that back in the 1950s they used to get mandrel bends on exhaust pipes by packing the pipe with sand and welding the ends over before bending. After they bent the tube, they cut the end off and knocked the sand loose. The sand would shift with the bender, but would not allow the tube to collapse. You could probably do something similar with very fine sand.

[dhutton]

1/2 Nicop will need a fairly large bend radius. Try to find a decent used dedicated 1/2 bender. Something like this
https://www.ebay.com/itm/336579692893?_skw=1%2F2+tube+bender+ridgid&itmmeta=01KTKJJG6WB9TJCXA3T87B5759&hash=item4e5db6895d:g:DMkAAeSwYudqAryi&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA8GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xCXCi%2F Ejv7FX1nvgYMH0cbbVk9t110JX6AfntXXyxaUAHg5oVGbdn3Qn m51bkVtIFEWbdORPGLMKcawvEnhGTb0gjkFAkOUn0yHwFlKJip QkqO%2Fba7f1RWTjUzMpDlew%2F38gX4%2BgR7J3iPks0F5KWh z2gnSVbyZwYOiJgmji1KWqTsQ6cnSAGfXmqvMOXGVifyD0XCpT S4I1JmvZj2uISpE1OkJzIlanW%2BFlm6D%2FlT9J24spOH6dHN kk5%2Bd71u%2FjutZ3JAssuHN7QXLiqXxUUV3fceyqlgQVHgDH Bnba0GYTg%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBM6oPK8tRn

[79 Camaro]

I like nicopp and use it on all my LS swaps. Not so much for fuel but for brake lines. It flares like butter. Bending wise just to test a piece buy a 2? foot length from like Oreilly's and see how it bends by hand.
In lieu of hard line have you considered -6 or -8 SS flex line instead of hard line?

[steve40]

I like nicopp and use it on all my LS swaps. Not so much for fuel but for brake lines. It flares like butter. Bending wise just to test a piece buy a 2? foot length from like Oreilly's and see how it bends by hand.
In lieu of hard line have you considered -6 or -8 SS flex line instead of hard line?

I didn't want to run the full length of the car with hose