tube bender

[westernair]

OK I am interested in making a rack for my Pinz. I need to either find someone locally to let me borrow a bender of just buy a set of bends. Anyone willing to sell me a set of bends to my specs?

[westernair]

I was thinking of making something like this person did.

So probably would need 16 90 deg bends and 8 15 deg (approx) bends

[4x4Pinz]

did a lot of my pinz projects with the bender from Harbor freight before moving up to a JD2 bender. HF bender works ok just takes a little longer and harder to duplicate angles.
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-ton-hyd ... 32888.html

[westernair]

Considering I would not use a bender regularly, I really don't want to invest in owning one. Finding use of one that can make repeatable bends would be my first preferance. A grinder can clean up my welds but not much can be done for bends that are out.

[4x4Pinz]

I had the same concerns when I first bought mine. My thought process was, 1st I could not find a bender that I could use 2nd I did not want the weaker links of all the welds at each bend 3rd the cost to rent a bender or pay someone to make the bends far exceeded the cost of the bender 4th the HF bender was not that big of an investment that I could not resale it later (or rent it to others that were in the same boat I was in) In the end I am glad I chose this route as I have used it far more than I ever figured I would. Actually got pretty good at reproducing bends and the HF bender does a pretty clean job of bending without the usual kinks associated with some home made bends, lots of lube was the key to this.

This is not meant to be argumentative just an explanation of how I came to the decision to get a bender.

[westernair]

You have good points and this is exactly why I am glad to be part of this forum. Regardless of how I go, I do appreciate the input. I do have a friend that has one of HF units, I think I'll stop by this week and maybe bend a few pieces to see how she goes.

[Andre]

There are companies that sell prebent tubing, invarious diameters and thicknesses, I have found them on line and in hot rod magazines. If I hadn't bought the bender, that would have been my method of building...

by getting all 90 degree bends, I would cut my custom bends from the 90's to save money.

Glad you like my work, and Jim Metlers design.

[ExpeditionImports]

Hi Guys,

Another option for those that want perfect bends.

Invest or borrow a copy of the Bend Tech Software: http://www.2020softwaresolutions.com/
It will take you a couple of hours to be pretty efficient at it.

Once you have your design, send the Bend File that is output to a company that does Mandrel Bending to spec. I have found them to be amazingly cost effective versus trying to purchase the materials and bend it up myself. You will also not get Mandrel bends from a home bender.

Attached are pics of one of our 20 passenger tour pods. Designed in Bend Tech, then sent out to be Mandrel Bent. Once it came back it was a matter of gluing it together! Benefits are you can also do Square Mandrel tubing.....

Cheers,

Scott

[westernair]

thanks for the tips, I ended up just using angles for my project instead.
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6356

[kpoling]

Scott: Saw your handiwork last month while on holiday on Maui:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/D ... directlink