I had to run a 1/2” gas line for my project car. I bought a coil of NiCopp tubing but I did not have a straightener for 1/2” tubing. Since this may be the only time I use 1/2” I did not want to spend $80-$230 for a commercial grade tubing straightener. I thought about buying 5 wheels and making a home-made tubing straightener like I saw on Youtube but then I had an idea that I wanted to try first. I had borrowed my friend’s 3/16” tubing Eastwood handheld straightener when I ran the brake lines and it worked pretty good so I thought about this concept but without using wheels.
I bought two threaded 4” PVC risers, two PVC end caps and one PVC coupler. The 1/2” tubing just fits through the center hole in the coupler. I drilled a 1/2” hole in the face of each end cap and I screwed all pieces together
I had straightened the tubing by hand as much as I could without kinking it. I threaded the tubing through the three holes and slid the straightener up and down the tubing. It did a pretty good job of straightening it. If it came to a tight spot or if it jammed to a stop I would back the device off and straighten that spot by hand and then start sliding again.
I like where this is going, I made one out of left over parts from work, so didn't think it was prudent to post up.
I used the concrete saw line in my driveway to check the straightness. It wasn’t perfect but the tubing was straight enough for me to start running down my frame rails. And the best part was it only cost me $7.50 to make it! If I was going to make one change to my home-made straightener I would add two more couplers and use four 2” long risers, three couplers and two end caps. I think having five holes to slide through instead of three holes would help make the tubing even straighter.
If you look hard enough, you can find the 15 dollar tubing benders with 4 sizes on one wheel. I mounted them on a board like in the upper left hand pic on your first post. But used 6 dies. That`s what I made. Looks like your idea works pretty good.
I'm liking this! I need to straighten a coil of 5/16" fuel line soon. I'll have to give this a try! Very cool!
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