How to bend shower track

Mike of s/v Chalice takes us thru the process.  With the right tools, jigs and with the secret ingredient, it is easy!

So just how do you do it with out it collapsing?

First I borrowed a Harbor Freight bender from a friend of mine to see if I could do it. Then I had to make a jig to work with the bender. Lastly, test on some scrap ( old piece).

The Jig build. From update _10_1_2012 From update _10_1_2012 From update _10_1_2012 With me so far? The half inch ply was a perfect fit. But if not I would have glued spacers in if needed. From update _10_1_2012 On the bender. From update _10_1_2012 Ok, so what is the secret ingredient? I actually found it on an Chinese industrial website for industrial benders. Dead simple when you know. It is a spacer/filler. Made from a piece of scrap plastic/Delrin. Insert it in the track. It MUST be a tight fit. Add captionFrom update _10_1_2012 From update _10_1_2012 Now bend it. From update _10_1_2012 First test on scrap. Then buy some track. I got mine here: http://www.curtain-tracks.com/  My problem was I had to match my current track. If you don't have to do this, then you may want to go a different route. From update _10_1_2012 More bending. From update _10_1_2012 Finished piece. From update _10_1_2012 I hope this helps anyone who needs to bend some track. It's not hard and can be done fairly inexpensively. If you have friend with a bender. I should say that of course this is not the only way to do it. It's just the way I did it.