Nothing Greenlee makes is cheap, they have lots of gov't contracts. I will say, though, that the Greenlee hydraulic crimper I picked up a few years back (for terminal ends on battery cables, and car stereo supply wiring) is one top-notch piece of equipment.
This is just one source. I'm sure with some shopping you could do better, especially at a construction equipment auction. http://cableorganizer.com/greenlee/855-smart-bender/#12101 Yeah this one is pricey. If you look at the 555model, that's similar to the one we used. I've seen them at auction for under $800.
Never thought about the Greenlee stuff. Might be able to rent 'em from industrial tool places--making it good for the guy likely only to do one cage for quite a while.
Wow. 
$11K for the model 855 bender and the rain cover is a $218 option?
Yup. Tools where a mortgage might be an appropriate payment plan are just a bit outside of my price range. . .but 'tis fun to dream. . .
Who can you rent benders from? On the flip side, how bad do the cheapy benders from HF and Northern suck? Would you do a cage you'd trust with those? One for you mother?
Also, anyone have a good source for tubing in the AL, GA, north FL area?
Holy "Back from the dead" Batman! This thread is old.
For posterity since I started this mess... the pro-tools manual bender I bought has built 3 cages so far. Its sturdy and very good for the price. Its still going strong and I will be buying some extra dies soon. It really does not need add-on hydraulics... using a longer pipe makes it pretty easy to do it manually.
The HF tubing notcher is a piece of E36 M3 that I should have thrown away shortly after removing it from the packaging but instead I made "spacers" and generally worked around its awfulness. I threw it away after the last time I had to spend 15 minutes grinding a straightforward notch. I bought one of these recently: badass notcher. I have not had occasion to use it yet but I'll be putting it to work in the next few weeks helping a buddy get a spec E30 ready for spring. It looks great and it really cannot be a disappointment compared to what I had.
Don't forget guys, there are PIPE benders and TUBING benders, one won't work for the other so make sure of the dies you buy.
Tubing is measured by O.D.
Pipe is measured by I.D.
Bending tubing in a pipe bender results in buggered up cage tubing because the pipe die you end up using on your tubing is a bit too wide and flattens the tube.
Shawn
Trans_Maro wrote: Don't forget guys, there are PIPE benders and TUBING benders, one won't work for the other so make sure of the dies you buy. Tubing is measured by O.D. Pipe is measured by I.D. Bending tubing in a pipe bender results in buggered up cage tubing because the pipe die you end up using on your tubing is a bit too wide and flattens the tube. Shawn
Sorry - the PIPE reference in my above post was for leverage applied to the handle of the TUBING bender.
Don't forget, Harbor Freight has come out with a tube bender. A true tube bender, not the pipe kinker.
The reviews I've read of it were pretty good. Even some of the pirate4x4 crowd were pretty pleased with how it worked doing truck cages.
FT, I saw that thing at the local HF store. With the 20% off coupon, it looks real tempting, and if I needed anything bent, I'd have it in my shop right now.
Good friend of mine just bought a notcher from Williams Lo-Buk and absolutly loves it.
The hand crank one above really has me interested. I've used a similar, but much much smaller, system to bend garden railroad track. It's very easy to get good consistent bends. And think of the arm workout!
Hmmmmm.
Jeff wrote: The hand crank one above really has me interested. I've used a similar, but much much smaller, system to bend garden railroad track. It's very easy to get good consistent bends. And think of the arm workout! Hmmmmm.
I was eyeballing that wheel... I have the pro 105 setup and I wonder if I could retro fit a large diameter wheel onto it with some kind of gear to change the direction and force necessary to operate it.
I could just cave and buy the hydraulic kit but... where is the fun in that
That's not a tubing bender but a tubing roller. No good for cages...
well, good for bling tubes in your rockcrawler chassis and you atom clone.
I have one 
10" radius bend on 2" tubing. Not sure why you don't think that's any good for cages.
Jeff wrote: Who can you rent benders from? On the flip side, how bad do the cheapy benders from HF and Northern suck? Would you do a cage you'd trust with those? One for you mother? Also, anyone have a good source for tubing in the AL, GA, north FL area?
http://www.tubularsteel.com/ They have a warehouse in Savannah. The locals up here order from them.
Jeff wrote: Also, anyone have a good source for tubing in the AL, GA, north FL area?
Marmon Keystone https://www.marmonkeystone.com/ecomm/servlet/LocationServlet
There all over the contry and have location in hotlata
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Holy "Back from the dead" Batman! This thread is old. For posterity since I started this mess... the pro-tools manual bender I bought has built 3 cages so far. Its sturdy and very good for the price. Its still going strong and I will be buying some extra dies soon. It really does not need add-on hydraulics... using a longer pipe makes it pretty easy to do it manually.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Holy "Back from the dead" Batman! This thread is old. For posterity since I started this mess... the pro-tools manual bender I bought has built 3 cages so far. Its sturdy and very good for the price. Its still going strong and I will be buying some extra dies soon. It really does not need add-on hydraulics... using a longer pipe makes it pretty easy to do it manually.
Glad the ProTools piece worked. I found mine to be a good unit as well.
The one great thing about hydraulics: you don't have to mount the bender to the floor. That makes it easier to stick out of the way when not needed.
foxtrapper wrote: 10" radius bend on 2" tubing. Not sure why you don't think that's any good for cages.
When you can get a 10" radius on 2" tube with this thing, I'll call you Popeye.
Not possible for all practical purposes, and 10" isn't very tight anyhoo.
It's hard to get a 'starting' point like a bender too.
Big workout for me with a 4' radius on 1" tube.
Crank crank crank. Tighten Crank crank crank Tighten. about 50 times
I have a JD3 and one of these...two different tools.
-James
I have been using a JD squared unit for many years now. It's a good unit. I used to have it on a stand bolted to the garage floor. Now that I have a lift in there, getting enough space to bend the main hoop, can be a real pain. After a little brainstorming I came up with the idea of bolting it to my open trailer bed. It worked out great. Lots of room in the driveway. I also bolted the notcher onto the trailer. I fabricated an L bracket out of 2" square stock that slides into my trucks tow hitch. On top of that I slide on a pipe vise that comes out level with the open tail gate and bed. Cut the pipe on the truck bed and bend it on the trailer. Lots of room, portable, and no pushing around project cars every time I need to work with pipe. Pipe vise also comes in handy with my real job as a plumber. One other note, bend radius for cages needs only to be three times the diameter of the pipe. 1.5"-uses a 4.5" die and 1.75" uses 5.25" die. The smaller the radius of bend, the tighter you can get the cage to the body.
Jensenman wrote: Glad the ProTools piece worked. I found mine to be a good unit as well. The one great thing about hydraulics: you don't have to mount the bender to the floor. That makes it easier to stick out of the way when not needed.
That is a really good reason right there - I read some great ideas below about mounting to trailers and/or using the hitch but... if I had the cylinder on there... I could just mount it on a stand w/ locking casters and not need all that torque on the stand.
So the Pro Tool 200 model will work for building a formula car and Baja SAE chassis right? Also will it work with aluminum?
This place has a pretty good reputation, I think. http://www.lowbucktools.com/prod.html
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