DIY Tubing Straightener

[antman213]

I'm installing 1" Pex-AL for my shop air system. Stuff is a pain to get straight so I made a tubing straightener. You can buy some similar tools but often they are too small and expensive. This design is pretty simple, and inexpensive. Other than the vise I'm all in at about $35-$40.
The picture show all items necessary.
-Washers to fit above and below v caster wheel
-Shoulder bolts to fit in V caster wheel
-V caster rollers w/ bearings
-Angle iron
-a vise to mount it to

I suppose you could use this for copper as well.
Oh, and it works as good as I had hoped. Very easy to pull through

 

[tester19]

Yes this has been done before. It's a good idea too!
Here is my home made pipe straightener. I ended up selling it after my install which was a mistake as I have now moved and am setting up another 3/4" Rapidair system.

3/4 " Pipe Straightener

Here is the guy I sold it to and his thread.

Install Rapidair

Just a note but Maxline now sells one that they make. It's expensive at $140 or so. Oops!! It now up to almost $170!!

Maxline Pipe Straightener
.
.
.

 

[Ohmthis]

What's the smallest tubing do you think it will work on? I plan on using Nickle Copper tubing for fuel and brake lines on my old truck.

 

[Slednut]

Made this for brake lines, its two pieces of 1x2" channel and the wheels are for sliding doors. I need to change the 1/4 inch bolts to 3/8". The 1/4" bolts flex too much.

 

[antman213]

What's the smallest tubing do you think it will work on? I plan on using Nickle Copper tubing for fuel and brake lines on my old truck.

Brake line is quite a bit smaller. If you offset the rollers so that they would interweave when closed then you could go as small as you would like. But they do make nylon rollers that you can use by hand for brake lines.

 

[metlmunchr]

For a straightening enough tubing to replace the lines on one vehicle, you can drill a hole 1/64 larger than the tube thru the width of a 2x4, wipe the tubing with a bit of oil, and with the wood held in a vise just pull the tubing thru the hole. CuNi tubing is soft enough that it'll remain straight after pulling. To get a good grip on the end of the tube, just clamp a flaring block onto the end.

 

[MBfreak]

Hello.
In the 60´s I was working in a big industrial instrumentation shop, in a large rubber factory. We used a lot of pneumatic instruments and actuators and were quite fuzzy in the 1/4" ( 6 mm in fact) and 3/8" ( 10 mm) copper tubing installation. Soft copper, came in rings with 2 feet dia. Close to impossible to straighten by hand.
So we invented.
In the shipping area there were loads of heavy forklifts and many very substantial concrete pillars. We tied one und of a 30 feet roll with a chain to a pillar, rolled it out and the oter end tied to the forklift. Several feet of slack. Full speed ahed , the pipe would snap off at one end and was absolutely straight. Cut i up in required lenghts, installed.
Perfect installatios!

Ola

 

[nadogail]

An application of "Brute Force" has solved many problems.

 

[ericlar80]

Easiest way too straighten tube is to clamp one end in a vise and pull on the other. You only want to stretch it like 2% of the overall length; just enough to get it straight. And it will be straight as an arrow when you are done... You then cut off and discard the ends you clamped.