bottle jack pipe benders

[chunderlicious]

They're shit, anything over 45 derees and they crease and fold the tube

["CANADA"]

They're shit, anything over 45 derees and they crease and fold the tube

Fill with sand,Cap the ends,Apply small amount of heat, and bend slowly

[chunderlicious]

been there before..... if any gaps or not filled properly itll shit itself and cause damage.

["CANADA"]

So take the time to do it right

[chunderlicious]

[homer voice on]

ooohhhhhhh, but that takes time!

[homer voice off]

[80lsy gq]

i am getting 90 degree bends out of mine. using a dawn die and putting larger diameter tube cut in half between the tube and the stops...no dints and no crushing

no stuffing around with sand either

dave

[Madmac]

i can get 90 degrees with mine, but only with heavy walled tube 4mm +

[chunderlicious]

i got 32NB heavy wall to go on Bpillar exo hoop and it just squashed

[antt]

get a decent die. every bit of tube on my car is bent with one of these. no kinks anywhere

[ludacris]

Mate, do yaself a favour - get an Enerpac. I've got one and it does awesome bends. I can't fault it.

LudaCris

[v840]

I just bought a TradeQuip one today. Havent used it yet but would I be better off getting a Dawn die or hoping for the best with the dies that it came with?
Im not too keen on the idea of messing around with sand and welding caps on etc.

[Gribble]

If your going to buy the press bender style you MUST get a decent die. The ones they give you are shit and are only good for making gates on a farm.

The dawn dies are the gun option, i used one to make my bullbar and Drop Bear is using it to make his cage and i reckon the bends are better than what a mandrel style bender can do. Of course the drawback is maximum of 90 degree bends.

Screw the caps and sand idea, just buy the right gear.

(that rhymes)

[v840]

Good to know. Thanks Gribble

[ratrangie]

Bottle jacks and heat are fine so long as you get a good die .
Green Slinky at tuff truck had all its bar work done in a shed this way..

[not not]

You can also line the die with lead sheeting like the stuff used in roofing for flashing. Cheers Jamie

[chunderlicious]

lead? u serious, that stuff seams way too soft, even the 5mm stuff (not very common anymore) i dont see how it would work...... please explain

["CANADA"]

lead? u serious, that stuff seams way too soft, even the 5mm stuff (not very common anymore) i dont see how it would work...... please explain

The reason it kinks is the die is pushed apart. The lead acts as a spacer

[V8Patrol]

Bottle jack benders are fine ........


So if ya having a drama then one of two things is WRONG .....

1/
the pipe you have isnt fitting into the die your trying to use 100% correctly. Either its too loose a fit ( common mistake ) or its over tight.
If its kinking in the middle of the bend then its too loose, this can be "fixed by placing some thin material ( such as tin from a roof flashing ) between the pipe and the die and then bending it.... the tin will form around the pipe and increase its diameter to take up the slack in the die to pipe fit.
Thin lead will also work but it wears out quickly if ya considering doing more than a few bends.

2/
Most common drama is the roller pins are too close to the die and this adds extra pressure to the pipe resulting in a kink...... solution = move the pins further out .


Pipe these days is a much higher tensile than it was 10 years ago, whilst this added tensile means a stronger product with a lighter wall the down side is it will kink easilly if poor fitting or incorrect roller location is used. Ya best bet is to purchase pipe that is 100% suitable for bending ( ask the supplier SPECIFICALLY for it ), then if it all turns to tears take it back for a refund. ( I generaly inform them that if it doesnt bend correctly then they'd better lube up n brace emselves so I can return it to where it belongs )

I've found that the so called "quality" varies dramaticlly from within the same bundle of pipe....... I recently did a roll hoop for a ute using 2n1/2 inch black pipe that I had asked for specifically for bending for this job, 5 lengths later I got it sweet and yet had changed nothing but the material, even the supplier couldnt get it to bend as far as I had acheived with his flash bender and super duper dies.

Anyone got any REDROO pipe laying around still or did I fluke the last surviving lengths in the country ???


Kingy

p/s
moved to gen tech

[thomo.in.a.gq]

made this with a crappy ebay bender. just used an larger tube over the tube i was bending. Worked pretty well and it was my first time using a bender of any sort.

[-Richo-]

WTF? you dont need sand and heat and all that shit, get a die to suit the pipe your bending and it will bend fine. The cheap chinese ghey arse dies i got with the bender do perfect bends on imperial sized pipe but crush the metric stuff because the die isnt exactly the same size as the pipe. This is the key to good bends regardless of how much your bender cost.

[Wendle]

$120 chinese bender + $90 dawn die.

built two buggies and a roll cage for a race car this way.
the only downside is that the radii are a fair bit bigger than a draw-through bender, so they don't look quite right aesthetically sometimes.

[N*A*M]

i broke my bender from having the rollers too close to the middle. cracked the welds to the base plate. so you will have to keep the pins further out and live with large radius bends. but the dawn dies are fantastic.

[N*A*M]

oh yeah large radius bends are stronger that small ones. i've rolled carlton's buggy repeatedly and it's still plumb. and before that he would've given the cage some loving too.

[sierrajim]

Sorry for the hijack, anyone know the best place in Melbourne to get the Dawn dies?

[dansedgli]

What does this piping usually cost per metre?

A mate has a bender and I would love to adjust the roll cage in my torana and make some new barwork for the maverick.

[festy]

15nb pipe is about $15, 25nb around $30, 32nb around $40, 50nb is around $60 - these prices are for 6.5m lengths.

If your cheap chinese die is too loose, it's not hard to make small adjustments to the dies. Some of my dies were spot on size, but my 15nb was useless, so I fixed it with fire and a big hammer and have done heaps of bends with it since, no sand packing or anything and without any kinks at all.

[N*A*M]

dawn dies can be ordered from blackwoods, or swanston engineering - for sure. other tool shops should be able to order them as well. my 32nb die was around $95 from memory.

[6.5 rangie]

Mine dents at the roller pins, how can i fix that, was thinking of changing it to rotary draw formers but thats big bickies.

["CANADA"]

Mine dents at the roller pins, how can i fix that, was thinking of changing it to rotary draw formers but thats big bickies.

Move the pins farther out

[badger]

where are these $120 chineese pipe benders
i cant find one cheaper than 250 and none of them are close enuf to make postage worth wile

also what is the difference with a drawn die?