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The Official Tube Bending Thread

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by BAILEIGH INC, Jan 12, 2009.

  1. BAILEIGH INC
    Joined: Aug 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,629

    BAILEIGH INC
    Alliance Vendor

    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.
     
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2009
  2. mottsrods
    Joined: Jul 9, 2008
    Posts: 742

    mottsrods
    Member

    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....
     
  3. BAILEIGH INC
    Joined: Aug 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,629

    BAILEIGH INC
    Alliance Vendor

    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.
     
  4. Von Hartmann
    Joined: Nov 21, 2006
    Posts: 988

    Von Hartmann
    Member

    i second that
     

  5. LUX BLUE
    Joined: May 23, 2005
    Posts: 4,407

    LUX BLUE
    Alliance Vendor
    from AUSTIN,TX

    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.:D
     
  6. budd
    Joined: Oct 31, 2006
    Posts: 3,478

    budd
    Member

    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.
     
  7. 73RR
    Joined: Jan 29, 2007
    Posts: 7,174

    73RR
    Member

    Arms the size of your leg...lol:D

    .
     
  8. BAILEIGH INC
    Joined: Aug 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,629

    BAILEIGH INC
    Alliance Vendor

    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.
     
  9. born loser
    Joined: Oct 18, 2008
    Posts: 56

    born loser
    Member
    from dallas

    Last edited: Jan 12, 2009
  10. BAILEIGH INC
    Joined: Aug 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,629

    BAILEIGH INC
    Alliance Vendor

    The Harbor Freight roll bender is pretty popular for large radius work, but does not work for roll cages or chassis.
     
  11. born loser
    Joined: Oct 18, 2008
    Posts: 56

    born loser
    Member
    from dallas

    was just throwing it out there for those looking to do large radius bends.
     
  12. f1 fred
    Joined: Apr 29, 2005
    Posts: 514

    f1 fred
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from mn

    thanks for posting
    lets hear it for a guy who shares useful knowledge of his trade on the board.
     
  13. 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 ?
     

    Attached Files:

  14. BAILEIGH INC
    Joined: Aug 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,629

    BAILEIGH INC
    Alliance Vendor

    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.
     
  15. Kevin Lee
    Joined: Nov 12, 2001
    Posts: 7,582

    Kevin Lee
    Super Moderator
    Staff Member

    Tightest/most realistic radius for 1 3/4" .125 wall tubing and the method used to get it?
     
  16. budd
    Joined: Oct 31, 2006
    Posts: 3,478

    budd
    Member

    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.

     
  17. 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 ?
     
  18. zman
    Joined: Apr 2, 2001
    Posts: 16,730

    zman
    Member
    from Garner, NC

    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.

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]

    I've found their cylinders to be questionable quality, I've had better luck at Agri Supply or Northern....
     
  19. BAILEIGH INC
    Joined: Aug 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,629

    BAILEIGH INC
    Alliance Vendor

    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.
     
    Tickety Boo likes this.
  20. 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?
     
  21. oj
    Joined: Jul 27, 2008
    Posts: 6,454

    oj
    Member

    On the subject or radius' it would be handy to have different radius' avail for small tubes, ie brake lines and fogger lines. I have the rigid benders for small tubes but cannot bend one tube to lay proper inside another since they share the same radius. Shane, you got something to accomodate? Thanks, oj
     
  22. hugh m
    Joined: Jul 18, 2007
    Posts: 2,143

    hugh m
    Member
    from ct.

    I fabbed a hydraulic setup for my Hossfeld bender by scaling up the photos in their catalog, and used a cylinder from Northern Hydraulics (which was American made at the time.) used an old enerpac pump, and all worked great. We now have an Ercolina bender, also works great, have heard of guys fabricating their own mandrel bending attachments for this, anybody seen one?
     
  23. BAILEIGH INC
    Joined: Aug 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,629

    BAILEIGH INC
    Alliance Vendor


    PM sent
     
  24. BAILEIGH INC
    Joined: Aug 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,629

    BAILEIGH INC
    Alliance Vendor


    I know Ercolina makes a mandrel bender, but I have never heard of anyone fabbing an attachment.
     
  25. Morrisman
    Joined: Dec 9, 2003
    Posts: 1,602

    Morrisman
    Member
    from England


    Is this some sort of secret squirrel club, with personal requests for info, or is there some chance we could all see the answer to the question? :confused:
     
  26. budd
    Joined: Oct 31, 2006
    Posts: 3,478

    budd
    Member

  27. BAILEIGH INC
    Joined: Aug 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,629

    BAILEIGH INC
    Alliance Vendor

    That is pretty neat.

    Sounds like he is bending 1" x .065" in the video. You can actually bend that material on a 2.75" center line radius empty (with no mandrel)
     

  28. I agree it is definitley a pretty fine line that they have to walk on this matter. Obviously they are here to promote and sell their products (not a bad thing) and have clearly stepped up to support the HAMB and provide valuable information but there are always those that think this type of input is inappropriate.

    But if a question is asked that they can provide a product to solve the problem I am sure more than one person has the same question and the product info would be valuable to many.
     
  29. BAILEIGH INC
    Joined: Aug 8, 2008
    Posts: 3,629

    BAILEIGH INC
    Alliance Vendor

    Not trying to ruffle any feathers here. Just didn't want to get flamed for spamming. This is a legitimate thread so I was keeping our product line out of it. But if you would like to see what bender we have, here is a link.

    http://www.bii1.com/benders/compact-bender-650.php

    This would be the least expensive option for brake lines and such, our larger bender also can have small die sets made for small tubing, but that might get a little spendy for 1 off projects.
     
  30. hugh m
    Joined: Jul 18, 2007
    Posts: 2,143

    hugh m
    Member
    from ct.

    Never seen a video, or machine showing how the mandrel actually works inside the tube , or how it gets out after the bend is made....nobody I know has one to actually look at...
     

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