Closer Examination- Part 1

Let's go through the various parts from left to right. First up are the much-needed keys to lock the briefcase with. Alphacool includes two of these, and both worked fine. There are also two fitting stops that are starting and ending points for the tubing when performing the measuring, bending, and cutting. As is the case with nearly every other such part here, the stops are made out of nylon, with openings for both 13 and 16 mm OD hard tubing terminating in a solid wall to stop the tubing. There are also a lot of different mounting parts included here; twenty-eight M5x50 screws, five M5x20 screws, eleven M5x10 screws, four M4x10 screws, forty-two M5 knurled metal nuts, eighty-two M6 metal washers, two screw terminals, and an M3 hex socket key are present.


Next up are the two multi-angle mandrels. There is a big and small version, as Alphacool themselves name them, with possible bending angles of 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90° for each. There are angle markings on each side to aid in a more precise bend, and each of these two mandrels has cutouts in its side to fit 13 or 16 mm OD hard tubing. The big mandrel has a bending radius of 33.5 and 32 mm for the 13/16 mm OD tubing respectively (not to be confused with a single tube that is 13 mm ID/16 mm OD in size), and the small mandrel has a, again respectively, bending radius of 23.5/22 mm for the 13/16 mm OD tubing, with the larger radius on the smaller tubing there to presumably prevent kinks.


Accompanying the multi-angle mandrels are two arc mandrels for more extreme bending angles. As with the other mandrels, there is a cutout in the middle to help screw it in place during bending, and there are angle markings on top. The bending radii here are the same as for the other mandrels - 33.5/32 mm for the big arc mandrel and 23.5/22 mm for the small arc mandrel, again for the 13/16 mm OD tubing.


If you needed more freedom for bends than what the previous ones can provide, there are seven "flex" mandrels included, which can be used together at varying distances from each other on a horizontal plane to flexibly bend 13/16 mm OD tubing for larger bending radii, in particular for those with a range of 75-165 mm. Also included are four straight mandrels with stylus stoppers; these allow you to mark off specific lengths of the tubing at the end for use with hard-line fittings. This "insertion depth" can thus be accounted for automatically and will not influence measurements for bending the tubing. There are markings to coincide with the specific insertion depths Alphacool fittings have, but you can also just use the closest value for your own fitting if it differs from the Alphacool ones and then subtract or add the difference as appropriate.