Best Of

The RE#MS tee puller is a lot less $$ compared to a T-Drill. This is a T-Drill notch tool, however. Notching a piece of solar absorber tube .

By code it needs to have two dimples on the stub. One gets silver soldered over, the other is for inspection to assure of the depth. This older tool only does one dimple.

i have seen an even simplier tee puller that goes into a cordless drill I think Flynnstone posted it somewhere.

My idea was as a steel pipe header as I would mount the circulators on them. I could go copper for more $.

I did slide the boiler into a rough position to start being able to visualize the piping and the gas line. I am try to determine where I want to set the indirect hot water tank so it Isa bit of a chess match!

Ever watch a good electrician bent EMT condiut. Once you get the math down it goes pretty quickly. There are some bending software programs also.

I doubt it is as fast as press fittings, but faster than sweat copper.

Yes the outer radius thins and the inner "bunches up", I suppose:)

I know those return bends on the end on HW and refrigeration coils are very thin copper. They run some pretty high pressures.

Bending is addressed in the CDA manuals and I believe is accepted in all the plumbing and mechanical codes.

I have bent some type M, but it tends to pucker up on the inner radius, L works best with plenty of lube.

I have found that old copper tends to split on the bend, for some reason. Like it hardens on the shelf??

There is a rep/ wholesaler in Illinois that made hundred of copper tube radiant ceiling grids. They had a home made copper bending tool. They kept the layout drawings of all the jobs, dating back to the 1950's, till recently so they could furnish repair loops!

@hot_rod in the last picture they're all mechanical tee's looks like, I only once saw a guy doing that it took quite a while. So how is that compered to sweat

This photos really make me think if at all I know what I'm doing, I mean that photo is hydronics at it best

Thank you

Hi, I use REMS for bending and tube expansion. A neat thing about the long bends you get is that the water doesn't know it's changing direction with bends over five pipe diameters, so no real turbulance or friction loss. This helps prevent erosion and can even allow you to use smaller pipe in some cases. Good way to go.

Yours, Larry

Rems is still around as far as I know. I have a Rems Amigo electric threader I bought from a guy that retired back in the 90s and its still going

Teal Industries in Minnesota is the importer and repair point for REMS. I've sent my tools there for repairs. Are they still open? REMSusa.com

There is a handful of guys that post on IG that do a lot of bending, Mike Flynn flynnstone1 and jeffdemhvac have done demos at some trade shows, AHR and others.

I used to do a lot of bending on my jobs, mostly hobby stuff now. You can also bend steel pipe and PVC pipe with it, cold!

I think Rothenberger has a bender also.