Learn Me: Tubing Benders

I also got the feeling 6" is the way to go.

I plan to go with 6" for 1.75, and also get a 4.5" for 1.5.

Since this thread got brought up again from another thread I thought I would update you all on my progress. 

I started assembling the frame maybe 6 months ago. The bottom part went together very well. And that's about as far as I got. The uprights needed drilled before I got much further, and wanting them to be precise as possible, I procrastinated that. I had mentioned that my brother in law could get them drilled at his work, but staff has shifted over there and I'm not sure if that would work out or not. 

Anyway, a couple months ago I was scrolling Facebook marketplace and found an "Eastwood High Capacity Tubing Bender" with stand, 1", 1.625", and 1.75" dies for like $800 I think. Barely used, and altogether new would be about $1300. I hadn't yet bought dies for the GotTrikes bender, so I'm only out the cost of metal there, but I can still use the metal for other things. 

I haven't bolted the bender to the floor anywhere yet because that would take up precious floor space... But loking back, I see there's plans to be able to mount the JD2 bender to a homemade stand, and use the air/hydraulic cylinder that I already have. I'm pretty sure the Eastwood bender mounts basically the same way, so I think I'm going to get a set of those plans, and adapt them to fit my needs. I may even be able to use the base from the GotTrikes bender that I already started as the base for this stand. 

In reply to AWSX1686 :

There should be a link to those plans in one of my posts in this thread.  I checked last night when I saw the new thread and the site is still up.  eBay link is probably toast, though.

IIRC, it was ~$100 in materials to build the stand, but that was with steel prices from 5 years ago...

In reply to Rodan :

I sent the guy an email, but haven't heard back yet. You don't happen to still have yours do you?

I have one you can borrow or I would even sell to you cheaply. I only have the die for 1.5 inch pipe, but other sizes should be available. Works great, send me a text to discuss.

In reply to AWSX1686 :

I'm not sure... I had a computer crash a few years ago that may have obliterated them.  I'm away from home until after the holidays, but I can check when I get back.

In reply to Rodan :

When you get a chance to check, I'd appreciate it. Obviously I'd pay for the plans, but if he went off the radar, then that might not be an option. Of course, he might just be off for the holidays too. 

I have the Eastwood. It works very well.

I strongly recommend spending the $100 on the air over hydraulic mount kit from SWAG and another $100 on the HF air over hydraulic cylinder. I've bent 2 cages with mine and fixing to start on the 3rd. It makes bends super easy. 

In reply to Toyman01 :

Yeah the Eastwood seems really nice. I was looking at that SWAG kit for the hydraulic cylinder, as I already have that part, but would prefer the aforementioned stand made from the DBT Industrial plans. A bit more compact, plus the vertical seems nice, and I could also mount the tubing roller on there too. 

Absolutely get the Air powered jack!

Many benders need to be bolted down (unless you have a really heavy table)

The vert benders you can use a magnetic angle finder to make consistent bends.

In reply to AWSX1686 :

Check your PMs

In reply to Sergeant82d :

What about bending square tube? 

Square tube dies can be had for most of the benders, JD2 for sure.  Not cheap, though...

Lots of good info in here.  Commenting just as a placeholder for future reference.

I found one of these cheap from an electrician that was going out of business. The sizes are for EMT and electrical conduit, which generally doesn't correspond to tubing sizes, except... 1 1/4" thinwall EMT is a perfect match for 1 1/2" tubing. This sucker makes 1.5" laughably easy: