The recent articles on replacement metal tubing were at an appropriate
time.  I am planning to replace more than 100 plastic elbows on the
MIDI board of a band organ.

The prior elbows were plastic with barbs.  They seemed to be okay at
the time, but after two years in use the rubber tubing began to split
at the ends, probably due to the barbs being slightly over-sized for
the 1/4" tubing.

I tried bending some 1/4" brass tube from a hobby store, and I bought
a 6" tubing bender.  The brass was too thin for a 90-degree bend.
It needed to be no less than .028" wall thickness for bending.

Next, I ordered 1/4" brass tubing with .032" wall thickness (in 6-foot
lengths!).  That size would bend but it was too much for the 6" bender.
It was a cross between my limited strength and my fear that the bender
would break.  So, on to a 9" bending tool.

The 9" bender would do the job but it was still at the limit of my
strength to get it to 90-degrees (with 2 hands) -- after making 8 or
10, I had to rest!  Besides, it was difficult to determine just where
to start the bend, as it slipped a bit during the bending and that
varied the overall length.

At that point, I was considering those 18" bending tools, when I read
the follow-on mentions in MMD of "Copper Brake Tubing" as a replacement
for brass.

What I found and ordered was 1/4" copper-nickel tubing, in a roll.  It
arrived today and a quick trial shows it will be perfect!  It is 1/4"
O.D. and appears to be close to .032" wall thickness.  So back to the
6" tubing bender and it worked perfectly (with only one hand!).

I leave 0.5" outside the bending mark and after the bend, cut it, leaving
0.5" of straight tube on the stock end.  My stock of 1/4" rubber tubing
fits perfect (tightly) on this Copper/Nickel and will not come off
accidentally!  I'll do the next 99 elbows with a smile!

Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas.

Max Huff
Houston, Texas
https://www.youtube.com/user/max9046/videos 

 [ W.W. Grainger, Inc., sells a 3-foot length of Monel 400 alloy
 [ nickel-copper tubing (about 67% Ni - 23% Cu), 0.250" O.D. by
 [ 0.180" I.D., for about $24.  "400 alloy" properties are given at
 [ http://www.jacquet.biz/JACQUET/USA/files/JCQusa-alloy-400.pdf 
 [ -- Robbie