Stainless steel pipe

[vrinner]

Anyone know of a place to get stainless steel pipe. Specifically used for coolant lines? Need to make something for a special application. it's either that or hack up the stock stuff and just use rubber hose.

Also what thickness should the wall be?

[J. Caraco]

You can try McMaster-Carr. Ask for TUBE not Pipe. Yes there is a difference.

Question is, are you going to try bending it? If so get a heavier wall, less likely to kink without lots of special machines and tooling. Say you need 3/4" OD tube. get the .065 or .083 wall. Yes it's a tiny bit heavier but for a few feet won't make any difference. There's all kinds of formulas as to how thick a wall needed for any bend radius, tooling required, etc. Simply put the tighter the radius the heavier needed to reduce chance of kinking. An old trick is to pack the tube with lead, sand, heavy coil spring, etc to reduce chance of kinking.
Or get COILED tube,(McMaster) so it's hopefully soft enough to bend. Issue there is 25 ft least you can purchase. Gets a little pricey then.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-stainless-steel-tubing/=115v2hp

Or http://www.mscdirect.com/browse/tn/Hose-Tube-Fittings-Valves/Metal-Tube?navid=4287921804+4288246855&searchterm=stainless+steel+tubing

Good luck!!!!!!!!

[Raven855]

I have had luck using the sandbending method. It's a old technic in which you close off one end, fill with a masonry sand(DRY sand!) and then pack the sand and close off the other end. Many drive in a wood wedge to compact and seal. Use heat(torch) and bend. If the sand has any moister it will expand and vaporize! This works better at the larger sizes, say over an inch or two.