Thinking of building my own tote gote type bike. was looking at tubing benders, some under a 100 bucks. Never used one, are the cheapys worth it, or are the bends crappy? I see where I can order pre bent sections. At what point (dollar wise) do I get a "real" bender that won't expand my vocabulary in swear words? Any words of advice?
tubing benders verus buying pre bent
I have not seen tubing benders cheap. Benders like the harbor frieght pipe bender are made for pipe. They work well for bending pipe which is sized by id. Tubing bent on a pipe bender will king. People have used tricks like filling the pipe with sand to prevent kinks. Tube benders have precision dies which are not cheap. My pro tools bender dies vary from 175 to 250 dollars each.
If you have a lot of projects planned its worth having a good quality tubing bender. If you don't have multiple projects then it would probably be better to have some bends made up. As said PIPE benders are for pipe. Owning a good tube bender is not cheap. I have many dies and some of them have only been used once.
That's what I was wondering. I see some of them listed as a tubing bender, but wondered what they considered "tubing". For the few tight bends I need, buying pre bent elbows sounds like a plan. I have made bends by making a series of cuts most of the way thru, then welding, but were on non structural stuff.Live in a small town and don't know of anyone with a real bender. One inch x 1/8th tubing should be plenty for a frame I would think, with a few braces. Errr not 1/8th,,,,,1/16th or 16 gauge. coffee wasn't working yet
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I have had a JD Squared bender for 25 years and it has never failed to bend anything I ran through it. Quit a few members have the same bender. They are reasonably priced and will repeat bends time after time. Plus you can buy another die set for a different project and just keep improving what you can do. I would recommend buying the 180 degree bend dies as you can bend any angle you desire up to the 180. If you buy a 90 degree die you cant bend beyond 90.
Here is a link. It is money well spent and you will never have to replace it.
https://www.jd2.com/p-32-model-3-bender.aspx
Doug
Here is a link. It is money well spent and you will never have to replace it.
https://www.jd2.com/p-32-model-3-bender.aspx
Doug
I had the Pro Tools bender and I felt guilty that I didn't use it as much as I should of. I had dies for 1/2 and 3/4 inch pipe and used black Iron pipe for building things like welding karts and such. I also had 3/4 - 7/8 - 1 - 1 11/2 inch dies. And the hardest thing is picking the right radius for you to get the most use. Mini Bike frames use a lot of fairly tight radius bends. I made a special bench that was used as a work station and anchored the bender too. The bender would tilt back off the table when not in use that made the bender to be moved outside to handle longer pieces of tubing. I sold it to a friend with the understanding that I still had access to it if needed. But as life has it's turns he past away but it's him that leaves a big hole in my heart as we talked by phone every day.
I contacted pro Tools and asked for a name of a customer that was near me that might give me a demo and possibly share the use of dies.
This guy wanted to rent me his bender but of course I bit the bullet and spent about $3500.00 over the years.
I contacted pro Tools and asked for a name of a customer that was near me that might give me a demo and possibly share the use of dies.
This guy wanted to rent me his bender but of course I bit the bullet and spent about $3500.00 over the years.
Any tubing bender for less than $100 you are getting ripped off or you are getting such a great deal you need to make sure it's not stolen. The harbor freight "bender" are more commonly known as the HF pipe kinker. You will spend more time modding it and filling the tubes with salt to keep it from kinking every bend than it would be worth it to just pay for a real bender. For just one project I would buy the bends. I also come from a small town but the larger one over has a couple of welding shops and they do have their own benders. (sometimes all of us around here will call each other to borrow a die we don't have to finish a project). You could try calling around and seeing if any around you have one and a die in the size you want. Draw out your plans in good detail and maybe have them bend it all up for you to take home and finish.
I have some electrical hand benders but they are designed to make nice swooping bends so you can pull wire threw the tubing/conduit. The radius on them will be too big for anything you want to build.
I have some electrical hand benders but they are designed to make nice swooping bends so you can pull wire threw the tubing/conduit. The radius on them will be too big for anything you want to build.
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