Tube bender and bending questions

[morewheeldrive]

G'day all,
was hoping someone could tell me the finer points of working out a bend radius for bending tube eg measuring point to point basically start to finish.
Also what's the best size I.D& O.D. And what type of tube is sufficiant?
And what kind of bender can be used for a beginner. I've seen people use the supercreep ones but it tends to kink the tube a bit and leave marks from the rollers. I've been looking at the type 2 bender from JD2 but it's quite pricey and I'm not sure I'm ready to fork out hundreds of benjamins for a bender if I'm just starting out.
Also what's all this NOM and DOM Ive read about in regards to tube?
Is seamless better then hot rolled?
Many
many questions I know but if anyone can answer a couple that would be great. Thanks.

[turbo gu]

there is a really good article on pirate 4x4 that shows a good starting point of bending basics!
edit this should be the link
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/bendin_tube/index.html
I have a JD2 and it was money well spent. You are better off starting out with a good bender than buy a cheap one then upgrading in a few months to a good one.
As for tube spec you may aswell see what is spec for CCDA or CAMS for cages.

[AFeral]

Your probally best off posting this in the general section rather than nissan section.
JD2 costs the money for a reason, its worth it. They fetch a good price on ebay should you don't want it. So its not such a gamble if you don't get along with tube bending. Where as a cheap bender is worth little second hand.

[morewheeldrive]

there is a really good article on pirate 4x4 that shows a good starting point of bending basics!
edit this should be the link
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/bendin_tube/index.html
I have a JD2 and it was money well spent. You are better off starting out with a good bender than buy a cheap one then upgrading in a few months to a good one.
As for tube spec you may aswell see what is spec for CCDA or CAMS for cages.

is your bender air over hydro or just hand ratchet operated? What kind of money did u pay for it? Did u buy it from opw or direct from jd2 ?

Not sure how to move this to the general section.

[turbo gu]

Mines a hand ratchet model. Couldn't justify the price for a hydro one.

I bought mine thru Pete @ OPW. No point importing one yourself as it would cost a fortune in freight as they weigh a ton.

[morewheeldrive]

And how much was the type two when u baught it? Did u just buy the one die or a couple. Those dies are massivly expenso lol but yeah I think I will look into it more. The idea of just purchasing the right bender once sounds better then buying a cheapy and then upgrading later. Now just need to get the dollars. Thanks

[turbo gu]

And how much was the type two when u baught it? Did u just buy the one die or a couple. Those dies are massivly expenso lol but yeah I think I will look into it more. The idea of just purchasing the right bender once sounds better then buying a cheapy and then upgrading later. Now just need to get the dollars. Thanks

I only bought a 1 3/4 inch die at the time. Can't remember what I paid.

[anzac]

G'day all,
was hoping someone could tell me the finer points of working out a bend radius for bending tube eg measuring point to point basically start to finish.
Also what's the best size I.D& O.D. And what type of tube is sufficiant?
And what kind of bender can be used for a beginner. I've seen people use the supercreep ones but it tends to kink the tube a bit and leave marks from the rollers. I've been looking at the type 2 bender from JD2 but it's quite pricey and I'm not sure I'm ready to fork out hundreds of benjamins for a bender if I'm just starting out.
Also what's all this NOM and DOM Ive read about in regards to tube?
Is seamless better then hot rolled?
Many
many questions I know but if anyone can answer a couple that would be great. Thanks.

I have a model 32 JD2 bender, the elbow grease model as couldn't afford the hydro setup, It's awesome how neat it is. I bought it from Pete at OPW, I bought a 50mm die and 42mm die and a notcher at the same time. Worked out to be $2650 to my door plus a few bucks to make a stand for it etc. Took me a few weeks to make my money back so a good investment really.

I started with using a prebent piece as a template to work out where to make bends when it was being built on the car. A bit slow a tedious doing it this way so I bought a computer program called Bendtech Pro. I bought the flash version but a base version would probably do what most people want. With this program I've massively reduced my wasted materials, can design in 3D to show customers what they will get at the end, can just cut measure and bend a complex tube in one hit so it's a lot quicker. Money well spent. Buy a download version direct from the company in the US off their website and they post you a hard copy as well. Basically once you've designed your part or item you can get a production sheet printed that tells you what size to cut to, where your bend locations are and how far to bend it and even how far to rotate it for 3D tubes.

Tube selection. Depends greatly on what you want to do with it. Check the CCDA website for the guidelines on what sizes are used in ROPS. For a beginner making sliders etc look at 40nb pipe. It's cheap (about $8/m max) it has 51mm OD so looks alright and get light (2.9mm wall) or even medium (3.2mm wall) if you're really keen on heavy duty. Down side is it's large bend radius of 165mm. 32nb is 42.4mm OD, bend radius of 114mm and cheaper again.

If you've got other questions, feel free to give me call on 0411 563 300, PM me or just call Pete at OPW. I've rung him up with some pretty dumb questions over the year and he's always more than happy to help.

[shorty_f0rty]

im just a noob when it comes to fab and bending tube so went on the cheap. chinese bender with dawn die for 42nb, yes the cheap bender dints your work but you can avoid that by sleeving the tube on the rollers when bending. also using a $100 welder to stick it all together.

I have no prior experience with this sort of stuff and got enough out of the pirate4x4 bending primer to figure out how to measure bends. not saying you will get quality work out of that gear but it'll give you a good idea if its something you want to get into.

1st project - rear bar


2nd project - rear bar v2 + spare wheel thingo


3rd project - 40 roof support (used offcuts with dents in them)


4th project - 80 sliders

[bad_religion_au]

yes the cheap bender dints your work but you can avoid that by sleeving the tube on the rollers when bending.

got a pic or something for this, i'm finding it hard to visualise?

[shorty_f0rty]

yes the cheap bender dints your work but you can avoid that by sleeving the tube on the rollers when bending.

got a pic or something for this, i'm finding it hard to visualise?

nah can't find a pic of it..

1. get a scrap bit of tube and cut it length ways
2. put the scrap bits between the tube and rollers when you make a bend

the scrap bits should take the dint made by the rollers when you use the bow and arrow benders.

[bad_religion_au]

yes the cheap bender dints your work but you can avoid that by sleeving the tube on the rollers when bending.

got a pic or something for this, i'm finding it hard to visualise?

nah can't find a pic of it..

1. get a scrap bit of tube and cut it length ways
2. put the scrap bits between the tube and rollers when you make a bend

the scrap bits should take the dint made by the rollers when you use the bow and arrow benders.

so a bit of tube the same size as what your bending i'm assuming?

[shorty_f0rty]

yes the cheap bender dints your work but you can avoid that by sleeving the tube on the rollers when bending.

got a pic or something for this, i'm finding it hard to visualise?

nah can't find a pic of it..

1. get a scrap bit of tube and cut it length ways
2. put the scrap bits between the tube and rollers when you make a bend

the scrap bits should take the dint made by the rollers when you use the bow and arrow benders.

so a bit of tube the same size as what your bending i'm assuming?

Thats it!

[80lsy gq]

no you need a bit of tube the next size up from what you are bending..so if bending 32nb you need a small piece of 40nb

dave

[GQ Bear]

no you need a bit of tube the next size up from what you are bending..so if bending 32nb you need a small piece of 40nb

dave

Does the added thickness from this sleeve stop tube flattening out at bend too?

Is their somewhere you can buy bends from and weld them in?

[80lsy gq]

no you need a bit of tube the next size up from what you are bending..so if bending 32nb you need a small piece of 40nb

dave

Does the added thickness from this sleeve stop tube flattening out at bend too?

Is their somewhere you can buy bends from and weld them in?

no the bends flatten out if the die doesnt fit the tube properly..on the cheaper benders with their dodgy dies the tube doesnt fit properly...you can successfully usde a cheap bender provided you get a dawn die and then use two half pieces of tube and sit them between the small rollers and the tube..you can if you want also tack weld them to the rollers..

the dawn dies will cost around $80 -$100

the weld in steam pipe bends can be bought from any steel place however imho they look like poo

dave

[russty_2008]

hi been trying to pull a simple 90 degree bend and all the pipe seems to do is flatten out on the top then crease on the under side. i have tryed filling the pipe with wet sand and making sure that the sand is fully compressed and the bender just splits the pipe. do i need to pull the bend at a certain speed? what is the correct thickness pipe needed to be used? or is my dye poor quality? can i grind this out to make it fit properly?

[mud4b]

hi been trying to pull a simple 90 degree bend and all the pipe seems to do is flatten out on the top then crease on the under side. i have tryed filling the pipe with wet sand and making sure that the sand is fully compressed and the bender just splits the pipe. do i need to pull the bend at a certain speed? what is the correct thickness pipe needed to be used? or is my dye poor quality? can i grind this out to make it fit properly?

What bender ans what pipe are you using? Speed should not matter if you have the right components.

cheers mark.