SpudFiles

You really don't need temp's much higher than boiling water. Oil, at say 230F, works really well but it is a heck of a lot easier to burn yourself with hot oil than it is with hot water so water would be preferred. You don't want to get the pipe any hotter than ~250F both because of the possibility of releasing nasty chemicals and because it'll get too soft.

Another way to do it if you just want to heat a small section of the pipe is to use heat tape. Heat tape plugs into the wall and, depending on the type, will heat up to ~150F up to about 250F. A standard light dimmer control is an easy way to control the temperature the tape heats up to. (Search the web for homemade Plexiglas/acrylic bending jigs for the basic idea.)


BTW, HCl does exist and is a gas at normal temperatures and pressures. The correct name is hydrogen chloride. When dissolved in water the correct name is hydrochloric acid. Both forms are hazardous but not all that bad. We aren't talking about VX type toxicity. 1 microgram of HCl gas won't hurt a person. 1 milligram won't either, even if inhaled. 1 gram inhaled will do serious damage but probably won't kill. You can buy concentrated hydrochloric acid at most hardware stores. It'll be label "Muriatic acid". Opening the container will release a small cloud of hydrogen chloride. That puff of stuff won't kill you but it would be best to minimize your exposure.

Lentamentalisk wrote:@clide
where did you find that info, because the PVC industry is about the slimiest trickiest group of people out there...
according to a book he has on the topic, PVC doesn't start dumping out the HCl until about 250c (480f,) but the amount of HCl that it spews out goes up exponential as the temperature rises. this means that at low temperatures, i.e. before the pipe gets very soft, you will probably be fine, but if it gets very soft, just know that you are poisoning yourself.

http://lib.tkk.fi/Diss/2004/isbn9512271516/

At around 250F PVC is soft enough to deform under its own weight, you don't really need it any softer than that.

I use a heat gun to bend PVC, i get it soft enough, but its still cold enough to use your hands, so it must be around 60*C when i bend it

jimmy101 wrote:BTW, HCl does exist and is a gas at normal temperatures and pressures. The correct name is hydrogen chloride. When dissolved in water the correct name is hydrochloric acid. Both forms are hazardous but not all that bad. We aren't talking about VX type toxicity. 1 microgram of HCl gas won't hurt a person. 1 milligram won't either, even if inhaled. 1 gram inhaled will do serious damage but probably won't kill. You can buy concentrated hydrochloric acid at most hardware stores. It'll be label "Muriatic acid". Opening the container will release a small cloud of hydrogen chloride. That puff of stuff won't kill you but it would be best to minimize your exposure.

Thanks mate, i wasn't sure

Ah...yeah...BurntLatke....thanks for getting that!

ahh heat gun i'll have to try that next time cause I can't stand the wait, and the burning is annoying too

if you can find a truck with straight exhaust pipe, you can warm up the truck then put the pipe in the exhaust, and once its soft, you pull it out and bent it.

That my friends is the redneck solution to bending PVC pipe.

hehe maybe it could also be used as a redneck heat gun