We have two pieces of equipment from ProTools in Tampa, Fl. One is a bead roller and the other is their tubing bender. We have had both for probably 8 years, and like most tools of this sort, you don't used them every day, only when you are doing that odd job where a tool like this makes it easier. First of all, ProTools brags about being "Made in the USA by American Craftsmen" and I like that. As far as the bead roller goes, we have used it quite a bit and it does a good job, especially since I made a platform for the work to slide across when rolling the bead. We have the motorized version and it works much easier than turning a crank. Overall, we like it a lot. Now, for the tubing bender, we have had it about the same amount of time and have only done maybe two dozen bends on it over those years, and we have 3 sets of dies.........1.25, 1.50, and 1.75. The last time we used it we noticed there was some distortion in the angles of the shoe to the arms, they didn't lay in the same plane any more, and we were not getting a nice, smooth bend on the tubing we were doing. We took it apart and found that the upper and lower arms were now a different length, the lower one was stretching out about a half inch more than the top one. We tried adjusting the bender to make them parallel, but the plates are just too bent to work. I called ProTools and spoke to Jim, the original guy who has been there forever. At first he suggested we buy a set of his heavy duty arms and the price would be $150 for the pair. We considered that reasonable and were ready to buy a set but then he said they were not a direct interchange with our unit and that all the parts needed would come to $370 ! He said he would suggest we just buy another whole new bender at $399 instead ! When we told him that Trick Tools sells his same unit for $299 he really didn't have a lot to say, and really didn't offer any further help beyond that point. Needless to say, I am disappointed that an "American Made" product didn't hold up to the minimal usage this one has gotten, and that a company that prides itself on being so good won't offer at least some assistance with what seems like a design flaw to me. Half inch thick steel plates should not stretch out that far with the little usage ours has gotten. So, the bottom line is, I rate their bead roller very high and their tubing bender not a good value. Not sure why they even carry the regular version if it is not suitable to do the very few bends we have used ours for. We are going to re-engineer the one we have because there is no way we will give them any more money, especially in light of their lack of concern about this issue. This weekend we are going to cut it up and weld some bracing on it to keep the two arms parallel. My advice, buy their bead roller but not their tubing bender. Don This is the one we have.
I have the Pro #104 and one of there bead rollers also and have not used the bead roller much but have used the tubing bender for 100s of bends and have only had to add a tab on shoe to keep the tube from sliding in the dies to keep from kinking thin wall tubing.
The Jalopy Journal
