Another Tubing Bender Thread. Do These Work?

Whats up guys,
I'm planning on putting a cage in my '31 Tudor (I know the cage is OT but the engine should be somewhere in the 600hp range so its kinda important) and I've been trying to find an affordable bender. I just found this one in the speedway catalog and I was wondering if anybody has used it before. I know its not the best one out there but its in my price range and its not something I'm gonna need to use everyday. Thanks
Speedway part number: 910-84112

 

that's escentially the basic design of a lot of benders. It's simple construction and cost of components put it in the price range of the occasional user. It's main drawback is speed, they are slow, so if your not into production bending it will do the job. Should serve you well at the hobby level.

Frank

 

Thanks Fab32, the slow speed is probably a good thing for me, more time to catch my screw ups before they happen

 

I have used one.. For the cost it is a great bender, really heavy duty.. Clamp it to the work bench and go build a cage.

 

...try this www.woodwardfab.com there's another one it's called www.lowbucktools.com .........look around.

 

Or you can build your own and save a couple more bucks.

http://www.pro-tools.com/pdf/hmp-200-new.pdf

 

I got my Hossfeld off of Craigslist for about that cost.

 

more bender plans, Bender Similar to the Hossfeld #2,

http://www.kinzers.com/don/MachineTools/bender/

 

Looks like a good little bender for a 1 off cage.

 

Just noticed your from Ft. Collins. FWIW- In the past, there has been vendors at this show selling those kind of benders, usually with examples of what they can do.

The 21st Annual Oval Track Trade and Swap Meet will happen on January 23rd and 24th, 2009 at the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont.

Setup and Early Bird specials will be on Friday the 23rd from 2-9pm, with the doors opening on Saturday the 24th at 8am and ending at 4pm.

For more information call John Witthar at (303)359-6026 or (303)335-5238.
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I grew up in Longmont and lived in Berthoud for years. Small world

 

Thanks for all the great info guys, thought I had my mind made up, now I'm gonna be on the fence for another week trying to figure out witch one to buy/build

 

between time $ and safty as much as it sucks to have some one else do work on you rigs sometimes a fab shop can do it for close to the same $ if you do it and they have the right tools. .02

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that one for pipe only?

 

If I remember (correctly that is) the Williams lowbuck tools says it will do Schedule 40 just fine but not frame/rollbar tubing without kinking it. Been kind of looking for one myself.

 

i kinda like this bender, with very little work it could be made into a mandrel bender.

 

No! This is a pipe bender, not a tube bender. You will be very frustrated if you try to build a roll cage with this.

 

I had one like the speedway one that I built. Worked great, but only bends to 90*. It was kind of slow, but it is easier to pump-in a degree or 2 with the jack than it is to heave a 5' breaker bar on a manual bender.
You could replace the jack with an air-operated jack if you can find one in the right size..

Lots of guys are building this bender. http://www.gottrikes.com/
he sells the plans, and now has parts for it. Very good bender.

 

Had a real high quality bender of that type from Century, was made here and everything, but was only good for heavy wall pipe, if you tried to make a tight bend, even in segments, it was not predictable at all. still got a couple of cages out of it, but it's a good thing the cars had roofs on them. Can only imagine how that Chinamen unit would work.

 

My buddy bought one,, he calls it the automatic pipe kinker!

 

woodward fab has a nice one that does round and square tubing for under 200

 

I have heard that more than once.

 

Please explain how to turn this into a mandrel bender....

 

I would be interested in that as well.

 

so first lets start with "what is a mandrel bender", this site gives a nice over view on the different parts that make up a mandrel bender, http://www.vansantent.com/definitions.htm , what makes the speedway bender simple to convert into a mandrel bender is that the tube your bending stays in the same location during the bending process, an upgrade to this bender would be to replace the small roller at the bottom with a pressure die, but that even is not nessary, my own mandrel bender has a roller instead of a pressure die, so heres a dwg of what it would take to turn the speedway bender into a mandrel bender,

a list of parts, your own mandrel, about 4ft of 1"x2"x1/2" wall tubeing, 4" of 2" angle iron, 5/8" threaded rod, a couple of nuts, you get the picture.

turning a mandrel would take the most amount of time as it needs to be made the correct size to slip into your tubing.

ok so the first pic is of the working parts of the bender, it shows the "plug" mandrel inside the tubing, it has to be inserted just pasted the lower quardrent of the forming die and still be supported by the small roller in this case, if you had a pressure die then it has to support the mandrel, i show a threaded rod holding the mandrel and it has to be adjustable so you can move it in and out of your tubing till you find the correct place where you no longer get wrinkles on the inside of your bend, the lower pic shows what i beleave is all that would be required to convert the speedway bender into a mandrel bender, the DIM.'s would vary on the type of tubeing and length on tubeing.

 

Interesting..

Do you have any pictures of your mandrel bender?

 

Could't access your drawing, but the vansant explanation is the best I've seen, thanks.

 

i do have a few pics, i wish i could convert my DWG, into a pic so i could post it on here but i guess i dont have the right program, maybe someone with autocad would be kind enough to do it.

 

HMMM .... Now my wheels are turning.... Thanks!