my tube bender...........

[j-bird]

Bob I'm building a tuber right now and I'll post some pics tomorrow.. That trick you said about tightening the washer down on the tube helped alot I can bend a perfect u with 1/4 tubing and have zero distortion ... I love that dang cheap and easy to make bender .... 100x's better than anything g you buy

[bob1961]

...........bob

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[Brewster]

Great work on the tube bender!!

[j-bird]

heres how good of a bend it'll make without distorting the tubing


i built this whole chassis using it..i used 1/4 and 3/16 hydro tubing


thanks for the great tip bob..i still have a lot of bends left, but i just wanted to show the non-believers how good it works

[bob1961]

thx and not bad at all, i know 1/4" is tough to bend in a tight small radius....glad i had an idea that could help only one person out if that is all it did ......bob

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[lead lobber]

Question Bob,

I'm about to drill and tap holes, just wondering what your spacing was between them. Thanks.

Jeff

[1tenner]

Originally Posted by lead lobber

Question Bob,

I'm about to drill and tap holes, just wondering what your spacing was between them. Thanks.

Jeff

I was wondering the same thing when I drilled the first hole in my steel plate last night...

Bob's look pretty close though. 8 holes in a 5" long bar, so just shy of 3/4" between each bolt hole.

[bob1961]

when i built the 1st one i thought i needed all those holes but only used two holes closest to each other....i spaced the two holes on the bigger plate as close as i could get them before i had to remove the bolt and washer to get the tube out of the bender....i think i put them 7/8" or 1" apart from each other....the only benifit i now see for more then two holes is to have a 3/16" and a 1/4" tube set up so one wouldn't need to switch out from 3/16" to 1/4" but i found it to be no big deal changing them out .........bob

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[Big Daddy]

Do you find you handle has helped the bends any? Do you just slide the hole over the center pin and rotate it around the axis?

[bob1961]

yes it does help with small lengths of tube you can't help around die by hand, that's why i made it .........bob

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[Big Daddy]

Okay, I made one but made a few changes. Not sure if they will make a difference of not though. I offset the anchor bolt from the axis bolt (making up terms here) so the tubing should run straight down the plate. Figured that would be easier to mark out angles... we'll see if it works or not.

I grabbed some 3/8" tubing from the scrap bin but it is aluminum and has a thicker wall so I need to sort that out. I am thinking of ordering some 3/8 shoulder bolts instead of a sleeved 5/16 bolt. Do you foresee any issues using those?

I bent a piece of 3/16 solid rod with it and wrapped 180° around the axis bolt. I can see where the handle will help. I'm sure tubing is a little easier to bend though.

I'll post some pics when I get the sleeves or bolt sorted out and some 3/16 tubing to practice on.

[bob1961]

no the 3/8" bolts you are thinking of using will be fine....i just used what i did cause i had them hanging bout....your idea of the offset is a good one that will work ....now lets see some pic's .........bob

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[orlandocrawler]

Originally Posted by Big Daddy

Okay, I made one but made a few changes. Not sure if they will make a difference of not though. I offset the anchor bolt from the axis bolt (making up terms here) so the tubing should run straight down the plate. Figured that would be easier to mark out angles... we'll see if it works or not.

I grabbed some 3/8" tubing from the scrap bin but it is aluminum and has a thicker wall so I need to sort that out. I am thinking of ordering some 3/8 shoulder bolts instead of a sleeved 5/16 bolt. Do you foresee any issues using those?

I bent a piece of 3/16 solid rod with it and wrapped 180° around the axis bolt. I can see where the handle will help. I'm sure tubing is a little easier to bend though.

I'll post some pics when I get the sleeves or bolt sorted out and some 3/16 tubing to practice on.

Any Pics??

[Big Daddy]

I had to order the shoulder bolts so I have been waiting for that. I can post some pics of it as it sits though... after I get home anyway. The local hardware store didn't have the exact size I was looking for. Ordering them will cost me a little more but I also ordered a bunch of spare metric stuff for my RC that was tons cheaper than the LHS.

[Big Daddy]

Okay, some pics of how it sits at the moment.
The only reason for the slots machined out is because they were already there and the material was free.
The two outside holes have cap screws in them that are to hold it in the vise and the others are just at different distances away for options. I plan on replacing the cap screws with shoulder bolts instead of making sleeves for these.


A piece of 3/16 solid rod just for fun. You can see my plan here for the off set hole, so I can mark out bend angles easier..I think. Time will tell.


Makes a tight bend but I don't like how it's straight on one side and curved coming out of the bend. I think the handle will help since I won't be putting pressure as far out to make a bend. I assume the tubing will be easier to bend too.


I may just drill and tap my welding table so I can just bolt this down to it when I want to use it instead of using my vise.

[bob1961]

yeah the closer to the bolt you bend/push the material the less curve you will get like you have there....also the washer on the stop stud the material rest's against isn't needed as well, mine is just a bolt with the hex cut off .........bob

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[scorpion0575]

Simple and effective, can't beat that combination ....

[Die-Laughing]

I gotta make me one of these

[JKMotorsports]

I wonder if the same idea can be used in the 1:1 world?

[mtdriver]

Originally Posted by JKMotorsports

I wonder if the same idea can be used in the 1:1 world?

Sure, if youre He-Man...

There really are manual tube benders for big stuff though, just takes more effort depending what youre doing. Obviously you wouldnt be bending 1.5" tubing around a bolt, but large diameter stock will work the same in theory.

The downfall is that the materials for this small scale bender are cheap. The larger stuff will cost more in material, so add a little more cost and you get a nice pre-made manual bender with actual dies.