bend tube?

J

johnson_steve

Been Around the Block
Ok, I'm going to need to bend some 1" (prob 0.125") tube into a U shape. the cheapest bender I can find is $180 from harbor freight. I can't afford this right now. does anyone know of a good way to bend tube without it? could I maybe just bend it over a big pipe or tree? or would that just mess up the tube? I've bent 1" electrical conduit this way before. I know I'll need a proper bender eventualy but I only need to bend these 2 U shapes right now and I can't even pay my electric bill right now. somewhere online I saw a bender someone made out of wood and mounted to a fence. something like that would be perfect; I'm not looking for anything to complex just leverage and brute force to make a half way decent U bend of aprox 4" to 8" diameter. any advice would be apreciated before I start ruining tube.
 
The hardest part you are going to have is getting it looking good. you can bend it around a tree, But it will kink. The only way i know to do it and make it look good is a Mandrel Bender. this basiclly rolls the pipe over a die so it doesnt warp. The harbor freight job is ok for some stuff but it still kinks the metal. Will not work for making a small diameter U type bend. I usually find befriending the your local machine shop is the best answer. Then you dont have to wast the money on a bender that pretty much sucks anyway. and the more you go their the less you may usually. Hell I Bug the guys um the road from me so much they showed be the basics on some tools and I just do what ever when ever for just the cost of metal.
 
I found this homemade mandrel bender online. this guy used to build dragster frames with it in the '60s. he was more then happy to help me out by answering any questions I had. You'd have to build one for each size tubing and radius but I think I might try my hand at building one for 1" tube with about a 6" radius and it would meet my needs quite well. it's made mostly of scrap and doesn't need expensive dies.

bender.jpg


Edit:
His name is Ellis Brasher and he built dragsters with his homeade bender that ran over 215mph in the quarter mile. here is a picture of the kind of bends he got:

Shop5.jpg


BRFWLS75.jpg
 
i have seen guys use 14 in car wheels or 2 rotors welded to eachother... but if i was you... i woudl go to the local machine shop and toss the guy 20 bucks to do it.
 
I might go that way. my buddy works for a company that has a machine shop. but I just know I'm going to want to bend plenty of tube. it's just these 2 right now but I'll be needing more. might get someone to do these for me but I do want to get a bender. how did they bend with the car wheels or brake rotors?
 
JRK5892 said:
i have seen guys use 14 in car wheels or 2 rotors welded to eachother... but if i was you... i woudl go to the local machine shop and toss the guy 20 bucks to do it.
Click to expand...
Hey JRK5892 / Joe, I know you're a busy guy (busy answering my questions), but I'd like more information about this also; can you provide any more details? I don't know Jack Squat (as Chris Farley / Matt Foley used to say) about bending tubing, but I'm willing to learn if someone can get me pointed in the right direction...

Once again, thanks for your time...
 
sorry guys did not see the thread... i will try and snap a pic of my buddies set up... he is HUGE into 4x4 so he bends pipe to protect axels and make grill guards and crap... i will try to explain how he did it...
now as i go into this bear a few things in mind... WE ARE CHEAP AND USE WHAT WE CAN GET!
his dad owns a machine shop so we get random sizes of steel scrap... his brother is a master welder... it works
ok so he had an old shop table that he welded 4 pieces of angle iron to... on top of this he added his block of steel... out of dumb luck it also put it just about level wiht the bottle jack.... on the bottle jack we drilled a hole thought he top and added a pin to this he made a hindge that will pivit on top and allow for the jack to go up and allow a smooth bend... he then welded 2 rotors together... the side plates that hold the rotors are made from some HEAVY steel... i drilled a few holes in it to allow for other size pipe, we just pull the pins and drop it down... i planned on using this for motorcycle frames but in 2 years never have! it was all built with scrap from the junk yard and his old mans shop... when he needs to get a bend stronger than a 90* he will either but it up to the wall or use straps to hold the other end... as i said we use what we got... here is a diagram... i will try to get to his shop some time in the next few months for a few pics... he lives about 2 hours south of me so i usually ride there when i go... here is a little paint to give you an idea
33ljiog.jpg
 
THANKS JOE! I'm going to have to study that drawing for a while, and re-read your description before I can start to get my brain around what I'm looking at, but the drawing will REALLY help me to visualize this setup. I do hope you can provide actual photos sometime in the future; hell, you could even write a "How-To" for us, if you ever have the free time...

Come to think of it, there might even be simple plans for building a cheap tubing bender available on the 'net... Looks like I'm going to have to visit Instructables.com (or just google it) to see what is out there in the ether...

Thanks again; I'm sure I'll eventually have a few questions for you, but for right now, I just need to analyze that drawing...
 
I have been googling. all the diy benders I can find use dies that cost a lot of money. Joe, so it's just 2 brake rotors welded back to back make a big circle to bend against and the jack provides the bending force? is there anything in the tube to prevent it from kinking? how thick are the tubbing walls?
 
what keeps the pipe on track is the rotors... you flip them so that they would be facing in on eachother the outsides get welded together... this will give you a good 1 in section to allow the pipe to fall in... we used some massive rotors off a big duelly... to keep the pipes from kinking we do hit them wiht the tourches while bending but the rotors give full support all the way around
fzamqh.jpg
 
how would you bend tubbing over 1" then? I don't need to right now, but you diagram said it was adjustable for other sizes. I don't mean to bug you to much; I'd just realy like to build one of these.
 
basicly the rotors will pin the pipe between the rotors and the steel plate under the rotors... to adjuste it he will pull out the axel bolt he ran thought the center of the rotors and MOVE it up or down on the plates that support the rotors... this will allow to fit a larger pipe... i have only been there when he did 1 in pipe though so i am not really sure the process... i would imagine that heat was vital in avoiding a KINK
 
yeah, def a torch will be handy. theres alot of guys who built thier own exhausts in here... no one care to throw thier hat into the ring?
 
you can fill the pipe with sand and cap the ends that way it wont kink the pipe and if you use heat make sure the sand is dry!

this might help http://niskygarage.logical.net/CB350/week2.html
 
I've heard the sand trick before and also some horror stories about when it doesn't work. that is a great link though I read through the entire build. the link you gave is almost exactly what I'm trying to do: rebuild the back of the frame with tube. I'll give it a try. I still intend to build some kind of bender. I'll post back here with details if I do.
 
someone posted a link on here to a high school website, it was two schools doing a competition cafe build. If you can find the link to the other school, they did this exact task using sand and a jig table. basically you make a jig and fill the tubing with sand and bend accordingly. Haven't done it myself but if a bunch of high school kids can pull it off why can't I?
 
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