Tubing bender

I have always bent tubing by hand or welded stuff to the table and bent it. I have decided to buy a couple of benders, i want an actual tubing bender like the JD2, and i want a tubing roller. What i am asking for is opinions on what machines are best bang for the buck. I have used them in the past but never owned one so any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Louie

 

i think if your going into business, the jd2 bender is all you'll need.

 

It's hard to beat the JD2 for the price. Not give away by any means but still quite a bit less than a Hossfeld which all of these are copied from somewhat.

 

look at Bailiegh they have lots of cool roll formers and benders i bought my tube bender thru them it,s a manual bender

 

I have had PRO Tools bender in my shop for lots of years. Saw my first one in a Nascar shop, that was good enough for me. It's air over hyrdaulic for power. (added later) I just looked on the PRO site and they don't show the table model I have? It sure works good for what I do, building chassis.

 

once you get a bender you'll need these too

http://www.bend-tech.com/

www.tubebandit.com

 

Bought a used Pro-Tools 105. Main choice at governed by the condition [very little use shown], resonable price, and the presence of some spare $$ in my pocket at the time.

Had lost my upper body strength about 10 yrs ago so bought the hydraulic ram and adapters from Pro-Tools, phone order, good to talk to, and no problems.

Limited $$ at the time of order so didn't get any of their pump set ups, hooked up my porta power pump. Slow but made good bends on what I bought it for [roll bar hoops, 1 3/4 .120 DOM]. Lay out suggestions from Pirate 4x4 site were a big help.

On loan to a buddy now who hooked up an air over hydraulic pump. He is reporting good bends for the cage construction on his LSR door car after the layout learning curve.

 

I run a JD2. Still use my own muscles to move it, for now. The lever gets longer as I get older. I would not trade it for anything. It paid for itself by the second job. Still going strong, with no signs of defect or wear, seven years on.

 

Cool links thanks for the help. I am also interested in a ring roller for making longer bows, if anyone has advice on those.

 

If you had done a simple search of "jd2" here you would have gotten a bunch of good threads with a ton of info on that bender as well as others. This has been talked about a bunch.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/search.php?searchid=8147440

 

Thanks, but i was looking for opinions from some guys on here that would actually like to help. I did the search function and it talks alot about jd2, i am more interested in what tubing rollers people like. Thanks for your help though.

 

I know a bit about benders....

I have sold JD2, Pro Tools, Mittler Brothers, JMR, Jancy for years before coming to Baileigh. I know the pros and cons of each. Any questions you have about any bender on the market, just ask away.

 

Go over to the pirate 4X4 site. There is pretty much info on benders there and links to Baileigh demo / sales videos.

Alan

 

I use Mitler Bros. Very heavy duty piece for production shop, pric to go along with it. ALL made in USA . right here in Foristel Mo. in fact . I'm told their bending measurement program is very nice , I still do it by hand and eye .
Seems most of the weekend Jeepers go with the JD2 , mostly for price but it does it's job when they need it .

 

I had a Greenlee electric//hydraulic that I used for years building roll cages for Howe Racing Enterprises. Thousands upon thousands of bends and I still have it today for the occasional tubing job.

Frank

 

Bought a JD2 and love it, it is one bad ass piece.