curved vent tube

[Telefunken_fan]

I'm working on a design that would aesthetically benefit from a curved vent tube. Anyone tried this? How would length be measured? My so far untested plan is to make a bending jig and first try some pvc with heat applied, then metal tube bent to what I need. The idea may be more trouble than it's worth, but I thought I'd throw it out there for a bit of brainstorming...

[Loren]

I assume you are not talking about flaring a vent when you say "bending".

There are 45° and 90° ABS elbows available from various resellers. You might want to consider those, but when you say aesthetically, perhaps your design exposes the vent pipe in some way? If so, the elbows may not be exactly what you want.

I'd measure the length down the centerline of the port.

Keep your vent velocity low. The lower the Fs of the cabinet, the lower you want the vent velocity to reduce chuffing and other noises.

Bending vents can be a good thing since they reduce vent noise. The trick is to make the vent area large enough to reduce noise.

I don't know your proposed pipe diameter, but I can't imagine that it would be easy to heat form a radius in a PVC pipe unless that radius was very large. Remember, you will be compressing plastic on the inner radius and stretching plastic on the outside radius.

[David Crewe]

I dont see to many problems. Electric outfits have ovens designed for bending PVC but, a heat gun will work almost as well. Go slow, rolling the tube and keeping constant motion on the gun, it takes a whileand it can scorch quickly. Light weight cotton gloves will help while bending.

Do measure down the center line and most important there will need to be a straight section on each end to allow the pressure gradiant to settle.

[Telefunken_fan]

Mostly I just feel a gradual curve will yield a better result than a 90 or 45 bend, but no, it's not visible, just inner nerd visible. I'm not sure this is the best solution to my design, but thanks for the ideas, as I feel it's worth pursuing for my goals. Really,the design just involves a lot of curves that aren't condusive to a straight vent. I'm going to experiment with some bending and with tuning keep the centerline in mind.

thanks guys

josh