Centerline Radius

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Sorry this doesnt really have much to do about welding in general.and also this may sound stupid.Im having trouble understanding CLR.Im wanting to buy some 90 degree aluminum tubing bends from globaltecheng.com, but i dont really understand CLR.im needing a really tight bend that is 4 inch outer diameter.ive done some searching around and all i come up with is a bunch of pictures showing CLR but not describing it.thanks, brent
Reply:Howdy Disepyon,Center Line Radius (CLR) would be the radius of a curve, that an imaginary line through the centerline of the tube would follow, in a curve with a consistent radius.Does that make sense?Roughly, your 4" outside radius, minus ½ of tube diameter = CLRGood Luck
Reply:As Denrep said.Another way to imagine it would be to put one end of the elbow flat on a table and measure to the center of the other end vertically from the table top.Have a look at this page http://tinyurl.com/4ovadf .....Mike
Reply:mmrmikey what you are  decribing ive always called a center-to-face dimension.
Reply:.... ive always called a center-to-face dimension
Reply:thanks for the response guys,so say that i have a 3" OD tube, 16g thick, and the (CLR) is 6". How would i imagine that or sketch that out on a piece of paper, just to get an idea of what it might look like?Also i see some websites that tell the tangent, is that really important to know?
Reply:How would i imagine that or sketch that out on a piece of paper...
Reply:thanks alot,when i get home ill try that out.any idea how you got the other two distances from 6" to get a 3" OD?
Reply:What exactly is it you're after? You said 'im needing a really tight bend that is 4 inch outer diameter.'Are you talking 4" OD tube or a bend with outside radius of 2"  in which case what diameter tube?Most common mandrel bends are 1.5 and 2D CLR, hence the 3" tube with 6" CLR (2D). AFAIK 1D is the minimum CLR possible, whether that's possible with Al is another questionHave a read here for more definitions/explanationsYou can always resort to making a 'lobster back' bend... Attached Images