Closer Examination- Part 2

Oh, did you think we were done? If anything, we are not even done with bending mandrels yet. Thus far, the mandrels covered bending the tubing in a horizontal, 2D plane. However, sometimes, you may want to bend tubing upward (or downward) because a case is 3D, after all. As such, there is a 45° and 90° vertical angled mandrel, each, for the 13 and 16 mm OD tubing (total of four 3D mandrels), and each can also be moved freely 180° along the horizontal axis to be able to account for the XYZ coordinates of one component to another inside a case. Also photographed here is the saw tool, which is a mitre box with openings for the two tube sizes. These channels are rubberized to prevent the tubing from sliding around when you use the saw to cut through it via the cutout in the middle.


There are also measuring tools provided to aid in the bending and cutting of the tubing, and here, we get two each of the 100, 150, 200, and 300 mm long metal rulers with 1 mm precision. There are also two angle rulers (also radius meters) and two 90° 180 mm rulers to use with an offset height when bending. The two angle rulers can be combined with each other to form a protractor, or with one of the other rulers to provide a quick angle reference. This is done via the cutouts in the middle of each ruler, with screws, washers, and nuts provided elsewhere.


A solid bending insert is a must to prevent kinking and give a consistent bend, so we get a 100 cm long bending insert that fits 13/16 mm OD tubes. This works only for tubing with a defined ID as well, and in this case, it happens to be 10 mm ID, 13 mm OD (9.5 mm thick insert) and 13 mm ID, 16 mm OD (12.5 mm thick insert), which more or less happens to be the norm. Alphacool is one of the few to make 13 mm OD hard tubing, so they would of course prefer you buy their tubing as well to ensure compatibility. A deburrer tool is provided to help clean up the edges on both the inside and outside of tubing once cut, and it is made out of metal throughout, which includes the body and teeth on either side. Two screw brackets help secure the mitre box to the edge of a table for when in use. The saw provided is a formidable handsaw with a blade that is 35 cm long and 0.8 mm thick and with thick, fine teeth and a black plastic hand grip. A set of size 10 latex gloves helps provide more grip thanks to the thick rubber coating, and the gloves will also act as a first line of defense against heat when used to bend the tubing.


There is another compartment underneath, to the left, which is accessed by lifting off the foam sheet via a cutout provided for this very purpose. Once done, we can see a bending plate on top of yet more shaped foam. This bending plate is made out of metal and has four rubber pads on the bottom to prevent scratches on both it and the resting surface, and it has a working surface of 290 x 490 mm with excess on each side making it total 300 x 500 mm. The bending plate has a matrix of row x column cutouts throughout in all but a corner, and these cutouts are used to secure the mandrels and mitre box when in use via screws, washers, and locking nuts. The top-right corner as seen from the front features angular cutouts, and this is where the flex mandrels in conjunction with the rulers for larger bending radii will be used in particular.

The astute reader would have noticed by now that there is no source of heat provided to get the tubing hot enough to flex and bend as desired. Alphacool sells a 2000 W heat gun with EU and UK plug options, though not for the USA. So I set about using one I had access to here already instead, but this is a shortcoming in Alphacool's portfolio when it comes to this kit that is otherwise capable of nearly everything else one would look for in such a kit.