The Official Tube Bending Thread

[BAILEIGH INC]

Hey guys,

It's Shane from Baileigh Industrial here in Wisconsin. As you know, we deal with the Hot Rod and Restoration crowd on a daily basis and would love to get a little more involved on the board and help out in our area of expertise.

We have a whole team of metal fabrication experts here and we specialize in tube bending and odd applications.

So, I will start this tube bending thread. If you have any questions about roll cages, bending tube or pipe, application issues, what wall thickness will work or not, wall thickness vs. center line Radius or what material will bend. Pretty much anything related to tube bending......ask away.

[mottsrods]

I know how to bend, but as everyone here will say, they would like to find an affordable mandrel bender...maybe even a bench mount one. Then can be made to be affordable....

[BAILEIGH INC]

Originally Posted by mottsrods

I know how to bend, but as everyone here will say, they would like to find an affordable mandrel bender...maybe even a bench mount one. Then can be made to be affordable....

Rotary draw benders for roll cages and tube chassis can be pretty affordable and can be bench mounted.

Unfortunately if you are looking to do exhaust, mandrel benders that will handle exhaust are quite spendy.

[Von Hartmann]

Originally Posted by mottsrods

I know how to bend, but as everyone here will say, they would like to find an affordable mandrel bender...maybe even a bench mount one. Then can be made to be affordable....

i second that

[LUX BLUE]

I would imagine that the actual bendier for the exhaust is reasonable...it's the "draw through" part that makes it get exciting.

Do You guys have anything that will adapt My Hossfeld number 2 from manual to air over hydraulic, or something similar?

The worlds toughest rowing machine is about to get used again, and since I use 1-3/4 .180 wall, ....I could use some help.

[budd]

i think just about any rotary draw bender could have a mandral attached, it just requires a place to mount the mandrel and of course a mandrel, i built my own hydraulic mandrel bender to bend 1-1/2"dia, 1/16" wall staniless, made my own mandrel, i would think it would take alot of effort the operate a manual mandrel bender.

[73RR]

Originally Posted by budd

... i would think it would take alot of effort the operate a manual mandrel bender.

Arms the size of your leg...lol

.

[BAILEIGH INC]

Originally Posted by LUX BLUE

I would imagine that the actual bendier for the exhaust is reasonable...it's the "draw through" part that makes it get exciting.

Do You guys have anything that will adapt My Hossfeld number 2 from manual to air over hydraulic, or something similar?

The worlds toughest rowing machine is about to get used again, and since I use 1-3/4 .180 wall, ....I could use some help.

We do not offer anything like that. But there are tons of guys out there that will just weld up some brackets and go to Harbor Freight and get an air / hydraulic kit and mount it up. Pretty common and it saves your back when bending heavy wall material.

[born loser]

Hossfield hydraulic attatchment:http://www.hossfeldbender.com/toolin...attachment.php

attatchment for air (hoist) type ram roe JD2 and Protools bender:
http://copperheadfab.com/index.php?a...%20Accessories

ebay dies to bend 3/4 or 1/2 tube in a cheap HF bender:
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/moto9ll

new cheapie HF tube roller $159:

[BAILEIGH INC]

Originally Posted by born loser

Hossfield hydraulic attatchment:http://www.hossfeldbender.com/toolin...attachment.php

attatchment for air (hoist) type ram roe JD2 and Protools bender:
http://copperheadfab.com/index.php?a...%20Accessories

ebay dies to bend 3/4 or 1/2 tube in a cheap HF bender:
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/moto9ll

new cheapie HF tube roller $159:

The Harbor Freight roll bender is pretty popular for large radius work, but does not work for roll cages or chassis.

[born loser]

was just throwing it out there for those looking to do large radius bends.

[f1 fred]

thanks for posting
lets hear it for a guy who shares useful knowledge of his trade on the board.

[JohnnyFast]

I have used my Hossfeld #2 hydraulic bender for over 30 years and it's pretty much bulletproof. Of course, like any machine, it has its limits. One of these being its inability to make smooth bends on thin wall tubing.

I've often thought about packing some sand into a piece of 1 1/2" Dia. X 16 Ga. tubing to see if that might help. Has anybody tried this ?

[BAILEIGH INC]

The secret to bending tube successfully (no ripples, wrinkle or kinks) is to make sure the tube wall is thick enough to support being bent at a given radius. This is why roll cages and tube chassis can be bent with a simple open rotary draw bender.

If the tube is not thick enough (like most exhaust) it will require a mandrel inside of the tube to support it as it is being bent. Without a mandrel, it will be like trying to bend a pop can. It will just crush.

I have heard of guys using sand to bend exhaust to large radius, but I have never seen any pictures of any tight radius bends (like headers) that look any good.

[Kevin Lee]

Tightest/most realistic radius for 1 3/4" .125 wall tubing and the method used to get it?

[budd]

i would say that in the same amount of time it would take to use sand to make bends in two pieces of 1-1/2" dia. 1/16" wall tubeing you could build and install a mandrel on your Hossfeld bender.

Originally Posted by JohnnyFast

I have used my Hossfeld #2 hydraulic bender for over 30 years and it's pretty much bulletproof. Of course, like any machine, it has its limits. One of these being its inability to make smooth bends on thin wall tubing.

I've often thought about packing some sand into a piece of 1 1/2" Dia. X 16 Ga. tubing to see if that might help. Has anybody tried this ?

[Thunderace]

I have a hydrualic bender for heavy stuff,
and an old Laco manual bench mounted machine for thin walled,
it's just like a scaled up version of the thing plumbers use to bend very soft thin walled copper, only you bolt to a bench and it's made from heavy iron and got a big handle.
makes lovely smooth bends in 16swg but the radius of the bends is quite large,and it's quite physical, larger diameters require the handle to be extended to about eight feet to be able to pull the bend smoothly, but the results are good.
Firm down the road has a fancy machine which can be programed to make whole exhaust systems, but when it comes to high performance stuff they still pack the pipes with sand and bend the pipes using a manual machine very like the one I use.

I like that Harbour Frieght Tube Roller, what a great little machine for making hoops,
what diameters and wall thicknesses does it work best with ?

[zman]

Originally Posted by LUX BLUE

I
Do You guys have anything that will adapt My Hossfeld number 2 from manual to air over hydraulic, or something similar?

LOL, when I bought mine the moron had yanked the cylinder and pump and scrapped them or some other such nonsense. I ended up putting together my own cylinder and pump. It actually runs off of a car battery until I get a power source for the pump.

Originally Posted by BAILEIGH INC

We do not offer anything like that. But there are tons of guys out there that will just weld up some brackets and go to Harbor Freight and get an air / hydraulic kit and mount it up. Pretty common and it saves your back when bending heavy wall material.

I've found their cylinders to be questionable quality, I've had better luck at Agri Supply or Northern....

[BAILEIGH INC]

Originally Posted by Kevin Lee

Tightest/most realistic radius for 1 3/4" .125 wall tubing and the method used to get it?

5.5" or 6.5" are pretty common bend radius' for 1 3/4' x .125 wall. Any simple open rotary draw bender can bend it. You will just need the correct die set.

[Eyeball]

When using .120 wall DOM for a cage where the minimum wall required is .120 what are the chances that the wall will be under spec on the outside edge of your bends?

Are you better off going with at .134 wall tube?