anger forces buy

[69.5CUDA]

ok guys..im looking for a ..semi inexpensive tubing bender....and not that pipe smasher POS that HF sells...i have one..its now a mini press

i have been blown off by every shop in 100 miles that would even respond to me about cage tube bending...i need to few bends to make it worth anyones time.....and because i do not want or need any other services i just get blown off..ive gone so far as to contact small "personal" shops on things like facebook...and again..im jut not worth anyones time

so..fuck em all..i need a bender, the ones im very much so shying away from are the bottle jack in a shoe box with dies...due to a lack of percision, the other thing im looking at is die's...theres alot of chineese companys making cheep but "good" dies on amazon with prices anything from 100-250...idealy i want one that can do up to 2.5 as then i could use it to do exhaust work as well making it a double duty piece of equipment, i figure even if i cant get over 2inch...i could still make header bends with it

so if anyones got ideas and or brands post em up so i can get back to work..im sick of sitting on my hands

 

[thrashingcows]

Only thing I can think of that might help...and I'm sure you know about it or have even tried it is to fill the pipe/tube with sand before bending. I remember reading that this was how some guys bent roll cage bars back in the early hot rod day with simple hand tools,

 

[Stretch]

Only thing I can think of that might help...and I'm sure you know about it or have even tried it is to fill the pipe/tube with sand before bending. I remember reading that this was how some guys bent roll cage bars back in the early hot rod day with simple hand tools,

I was just going to say that. When my brother built his jeep, he built the cage and the bumpers. All the tube was bent on a harbor freight bottle jack bender. He filled the tubes with sand and duct taped the ends shut before bending. Every bend came out without a single crush. I may or may not have pictures. I did at one time but that laptop failed a durability test when I dropped it.

 

[69.5CUDA]

gah i tryed repeatedly with the sand trick and never one could pull anything more than about a 45 without a fail, maybe the sweet spot is in 2inch+? and a specific thickness?

back when i was trying to make that work i even went so far as to try using water to help pack the sand and then heat the tube to dry it out before bending...it helped but i still couldnt pull a 90

 

[69.5CUDA]

im looking at stuff like these....this is just a few of them

Manual Tube Bender - Grizzly Industrial, Inc.

<h1>T30860 Grizzly Manual Tube Bender </h2> <h2>Bend tubing the right way, your way. </h2> <p>The T30860 Manual Tube Bender provides a stable and durable platform for tube bending that is quick to set up and easy to use.</p> <p>Manual tube benders can be used with minimal training to provide...

www.grizzly.com

Buy Manual Tube Bender & Pipe Bending Machine | Woodward Fab

Shop high-quality Manual Tube and Pipe Bender at Woodward Fab. Achieve precise, durable bends for various materials with our reliable, easy-to-use machines. Perfect for DIY and professional use.

www.woodwardfab.com

Model 32 Tube Bender Manual

Model 32 Bender

www.jd2.com

Eastwood High Capacity Tubing Bender

Create accurate, smooth, kink-free bends up to 180°

www.eastwood.com

Pro-Tools MB-105HD Heavy Duty Manual Tube Bender, Round Tubing, Pipe and Square

Buy the Pro Tools Model 105HD Manual Tube Bender, an upgraded version of the popular MB-105 bender, featuring a 2 inch round tubing capacity.

www.trick-tools.com

 

[Dr.Jass]

Benders are cheap... it's the dies for them that'll kill you. Any of those would do the job, but none of them includes any dies. The dies for just one pipe size will at least double the price of the bender, so keep that in mind.

 

[69.5CUDA]

not entirely true....it depends on where your sourcing the dies from..i say this as ive found many a die on amazon for 100-200$, you just have to really sift thru shitposts to find them

the other option is to go with one of these style rigs..mind you id be hard pressed to buy this one with a name like kaka industries
5 dies and rig for 565$....3/4, 1, 1-1/2, 1-5/8, 1-3/4

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71ObRcWbDiL._AC_SL1500_.jpg

 

[Dr.Jass]

I wouldn't buy dies from anyone other than who made the bender. Poor- or non-fitting cheap dies? Have fun with those.

As far as the picture link, well... now you're back looking at a bottle-jack based rig, which you said doesn't work. Those die rollers look rather flimsy, too.

 

[69.5CUDA]

thats just it on the dies, ive been doing some big time digging and for the most part one shops dies fit everyones equipment since its all based off the same laser cut template and machined pins with different costs based on who is selling it, hell i just found eastwoods 370$ bender for 230 exactly the same down to the way the pin grips are cut

the exceptions ive found...are some of the so called "heavy duty" where they will sometimes use a larger pin on the same framework with the same die driller out to match the "heavy duty" size pin but more often than not it seems to be the exact same "tool" and die with a grade8 bolt swap and a thicker beefier handle

if you stick to "name brand"...of course most of said brands ive never heard of.....pro-tool and woodward seem to be the cheepest on dies at around 2-300 a pop

hopefully me sticking my neck out on this will help someone down the line save a lil coin for more dies LOL

 

[69.5CUDA]

side bonus, any reason i couldnt run say some left over 120 dom for headers? as id have the dies and the tube, and at 120 is .02 thinner than sch40, and for that matter get a 2.5 die and use non dom 2.5 all the way back in .065, just thinking outloud mostly..

 

[69.5CUDA]

a few inquires later
i verified thru Eastwood and a few others "most dies fit our machines" with some saying you may need to shim to center the dies up/down but otherwise not an issue...in fact eastwood doesnt even know when they will get dies in and pointed me at "grizzly" and jdsquared...grizzly is semi local which is re-assuring(so is swag but their prices are insane)

heres the machine ive grabbed, its either the "source" of eastwoods rig or a clone of it..which is in itself a copy of the jd squared unit as well as pro tools and a few others...probably all cranked out of the same shop in china or india..but by far its the best price i found for what is basicly a few holes in some plate steel and some pins n bolts
however im not sure if its amazon or nuts the link wont post any other way
"www.amazon.com/dp/B08W4SYS59"

and outside of some "unknown" sources on amazon, these guys have the best price on dies..short of finding used ones on ebay...the biggest upset i found was how "proud" places like jd, pro tool n such are to provide 70$ no other option shipping....vs grizleys 20ish...bonus points for the slide die having aluminum shoes that are repalceable...so you wont be maring op any stainless or chromo

Search - Grizzly Industrial, Inc.

Grizzly Industrial, Inc. is a national retail and internet company providing a wide variety of high-quality woodworking and metalworking machinery, power tools, hand tools and accessories. By selling directly to end users we provide the best quality products at the best price to professionals...

www.grizzly.com

 

[Stretch]

You need to let us know how well the rig you get works. All pros and all cons. I'm extremely interested in this although I'm not quite sure why. I have no plans to buy one right now or ever for that matter.

 

[69.5CUDA]

your intrested cause every one of us bastards has considered a cage or bar at one point in life or another, bonus in my digging you can get square dies as well in some pretty wide range of sizes which got me further thinking about chassis fab, i also found dies in mm so in theory it looks like you can get very VERY close to exhaust pipe size dies...which i fully intend to verify

i ended up ordering 1-3/4 die as a last min change of heart...for multiple reasons....
1, i have 15ft of .120 1-3/4 on hand..practice for free?
2, 1.75 has an ID of 1.5 ish so its perfect for my headers
3, my bike needs a header to muffler section of..yup 1.5 id
4, 1.5 the more i looked at a 1ft long 1.5x.250 it just didnt leave the "confidence" in my head at that OD
5, in the end i feel like 1.75 is something im more likely to get ALOT of use out of vs 1.5

on a side note, the price difference pretty much across the board for a 120deg vs a 180deg is anywhere from 50-120ish more than the 120....so...in my head it makes more sense to ALWAYS buy the 180 as you remove your limits

another side note of usefulness
in my digging all of the "lower end rigs WILL NOT DO 3inch...2inch limit
but get this
the next step up WILL do 3 inch and WILL USE THE LOWER RIGS DIES...so i had to figure out the what for and why.....pin and bolt length...nothing more all of the "replacement part" IE side arms ratchet bar etc are all the same parts its the pins and bolts than change along with the handle..so..get longer pins n bolts and you can do 3inch, on the note of 2.5 and 3inch tho is that every shop that sells a rig capable of doing anything over 2 highly recomends or only sells it in a HYD version...said HYD version being nothing more than adding a HF powered ram to the unit..and the adaptors to do so are sold for the light weight machines thru almost every shop specificly listing "for use with HF model #blah blah blah"

that said..when you get into the "big" dies the price gets NUTTY

if all testing goes well, sometime this summer ill be looking to a 3inch to make a couple of good ole 70s truck rollbars since i cant find any localy after 3 years of searching


with the ice storm were having im not sure when ill get everything, the die is listed to be here tuesday...and the rig thursday

 

[69.5CUDA]

so..UPS is a bunch of lazy weak bastards with issues

the DIE set..going from northern washington to northern oregon, scheduled to get here monday.....in fact it got to the portland sorting terminal at 3am monday morning...."severe weather may delay your shipment", as of sunday all main roads were clean clear and normal, as of monday all side roads were basicly clean n clear....so...yeah...hell i could have made a 6-8 hour round trip to pick em up.....hell i saw a ups truck on our street monday heard em go by a few times so probably multiple trucks

the bender..big..heavy coming from alabama is not having any issues or any warnings of any kind....so figure that one out

 

[69.5CUDA]

picked up from ups directly as they were being idiots

the bender itself was..badly packaged..and lets face it..ups isnt nice....a lil missing hardware and a destroyed keep box, all said tho its SOLID and beefy

the die..wow..packaged to take anything box in box in padding....in its shipped from china box..LOL suprise suprise

anyway, after initial inspection and assembly, i can tell you a few things off the top, the dies are VERY nice, and the bender itself is either a woodward fab clone or its source...the instructions even have pics of said woodward fab and use the same "break down" parts list

the box the bender came in had signs of going thru ebay "www.sevenblacksmiths.com" was on the box in HUGE painted letters

initial notes and issues

i feel like the guide die needs to be "center shimmed", i know it should "float" but theirs floating and then theirs full on walking

the "base" mounting is just a spacer with holes, going to re-work it into a reciever hitch setup

otherwise the only things im noticing its needing to re-paint the degree wheel so its better visable, the "handle" is a joke(but it is on all of them), otherwise i see the need to simply take up some minor gaps to make things smoother, and then clean and paint the whole thing

all said before ive even tested it im pretty pleased, and if it works ill be adding the HF ram to it eliminating the handle

 

[Stretch]

Pictures? I can't believe I had to ask you (of all people) for pictures.

 

[69.5CUDA]

ive been busy with mom stuff....

but here ya go as i had time today

the die set is very..very nice, and was double packed for safety.....i tossed the air chuck on it for scale..as i bought a 5-1/2 inch 180deg 1-3/4 die....so..naturealy i assumes the die i was looking at on every site was well 5 1/2 inches...


UPS at their finest......mangled shreded box, bags busted open hole big enough to get my arm in clear visable missing straps from mangling in shipping...all said just some missing hardware, and the seller working with me

 

[69.5CUDA]

with the new bender assembled..dies in place its a HEAVY MOFO..no...seriously its weighty the bender itself was listed on the ups box as 53ish lbs...and the die listed as 2.35........which is BULLSHIT 23.5lbs i could belive..if not heavier..clearly someone typeo'd

it was clear BEFORE i bought it id need a way to mount dissmount and store...and ive wanted to do a reciever setup for a while so it gave me the excuse to do it

fairly simple setup, a couple of thick leftover 1/2inch ID sleeves from the offroad chair build and a scrap of bar stock gave me a nice curved ended flat sided super snug fit "finger" that would slip into any of the 4 corners of my lift that often doubles as a work bench

had to nibble down the end of the pin as clearance is TIGHT on one side, looser on the other as i wanted it offset, also added a fine thread "clamp" bolt to keep things mounted from wobbling around, on the note of the pin, its a VERY snug fit in both the reciever and the recieved so there is only vertical travel IE no side slop

 

[69.5CUDA]

making the mount bar for the bender had a lil twist to it, i needed enough hight to clear for both inboard and outboard mounting as well as clearing the nuts , all said i managed to make something out of alomst entirely scrap bits

seems i failed to snag a pic, once i built the C channel with mounting holes, i pulled it out to the edge and then raised it a good 1inch+ so there is access to the mounting nuts and enought height to clear anything/everything

 

[69.5CUDA]

i was on a roll....so...i did one for my vise as well

leeeeroy descided to be a camera clown

and i did a "test bend" on some 0.125..im unsure if it was 1-5/8 or 11/16...its deffinatly NOT 1-3/4, all said it bent pretty good, i can obviously see adding hyd assist to it, and i can say with certanty that the degree wheel is POINTLESS......putting a mark on the follower die and then marking the main die in deg's will keep it all within eyesight, but i now have a slightly over 90 deg bend that i can do some minor testfits to see how tight i can build the cage