hand brake line bending tools

I have the bender pictured, works good I just wish the radius was smaller. Anyone know of one with a smaller radius for tighter bends? Anyone use the bending pliers? Any good or junk?

 

Got a pair of bending pliers if you want to try them.

Did ok with them

 

Thanks buddy, that would be cool. how are the bends? nice and smooth? do the pliers just take the place of the bender?

 

If you try to tighten the radius too much, you will collapse the line. So be mindful of that, you will not get a super small radius in brake lines.

 

x2...

 

x3
tubing benders usually come with the correct size radius for the tubing size they are made for.the only suggestion I would make was to get one of the tubing benders made for the brake line you are using instead of the one for multiple sizes. maybe it will be a little smaller, but probably not by much.

 

I have what you have shown, but also have a nice set of pliers for that purpose....at my shop. will post brand and model # tomorrow........


Ray

 

Sykes Pickavant bender. This sucker makes the tightest radius bends you'll ever see.

An old boss had one, and I thought it was a joke until I tried it.

 

My Imperial Eastman 3/16" tube bender bends to a 7/16" radius and the 1/4" tube bender
does a 9/16" radius. Both bend smooth up to 180 degrees with no flattening.

 

didn't think about that, just wanted to keep things a bit tighter but this bender is 1" radius. probably dont want to be smaller than that anyway. getting ready to do lines on my Model A. guess I'm just (over)thinking ahead.

 

that would be a little better. what is the model number of your bender?

 

Is it this one, the 364FH?

 

thanks

 

I have a set of the pliers and they work great.

 

Yes, that's the series of benders I have.

 

Mine give about one inch radii - can get them to you if you want to try them.

 

I've got a half dozen different benders for brake and fuel lines and still haven't found one that works perfectly every time.



The top one is similar in design to the one in your first photo but is one out of the discount tool catalog you see on the counter of some parts houses. it's a bit sloppy for my taste but I only paid 12 bucks for it 20 years ago.
The middle one is another parts house buy that I can't really recommend at this time.
The bottom one seems to work pretty well but I haven't put it to a real test yet.

Imperial as in Imperial Eastman the tube and fitting outfit sells some nice looking benders and some of them are designed for very tight radius bends.
One source http://www.drillspot.com/products/76976/imperial_eastman_368-fh_tubing_bender

 

i will try to swing out your way one night maybe. thanks.

 

Np call ahead and let me know

 

That series of benders... Rigid makes them.
They're expensive, but oh-so-worth it.

Perfect bends, every time.
What I like most about them is they'll do 180-degree bends in a tight radius... gives the lines a factory, professional appearance.

-Brad

 

You can spend a bunch of money but I found a Robinair Tubing bender 40 years ago probably. I owned a muffler and brake shop for 25 years and it always served me well. I've replaced a hell of a lot of brake lines with this unit. All looked like they were factory lines when I was done. I took great pride in running brake lines. I was a journeyman steamfitter so running tubing neatly is important to me. I copied lots of factory lines to replace leaky ones.

 

Okay, been to the shop this morning........I have Eastman Imperial 470-FH that will do 1/2" radius on 3/16" tubing. The bending die gives good support to tubing wall when bending. Also does 5/16" and 3/8", though with increasing radii.

Also have a tubing bending pliers from Eastwood (not Eastman), no model # present,
that will do small radius bends, left or right, in tighter quarters than any of my other tools.

Ray

 

The power built one in your pic did ok for me when I re did all the lines on my truck. Anything over 90 degrees and it flattened out. After continuous use the tool even bent out of shape.

 

I have one of these. Works really well, but there is a learning curve to making it do what you want.

NOS sells a little bender for making nitrous lines, but it works really well for making brake lines on the car.

 

X2 in these. If you need tighter than these, use an elbow fitting. In te case of tubing benders, you do get what you pay for. I have almost every bender pictured so far, and the Imperials are head and shoulders above the rest.

 

I have only done brake lines on one vehicle, but redid them half a dozen times using all kinds of benders and never could get them to look right. I ended up switching to poly armour line and did them by hand and they look pretty nice. For 180 bends I put the line over a piece of pipe and just bent it around, then trimmed it to fit whatever I was doing.

Probably useless info as you guys have done this before, but wht the hell.

 

One of the best features of a quality bender is that you can make consistant bends, not so important with brake lines; but real helpful when doing fuel lines and trans cooler lines. Larger lines are usually the downfall of the cheap benders, too weak and flex to much be accurate.

 

thanks for all the input guys.