my tube bender...........
 

after reading people wanting a tighter bend in tube then any factory made bender can do, here is what i made from stuff i had around the house that will bend up 3/16" and 1/4" brakeline with a 3/8" inside radius diameter bend....
i started with a piece of steel bar stock that was 3/8" thick x 1" wide and cut it 5" long....

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2.../tubejig01.jpg

i tapped 5/16" holes in it for my mandrel bolts and 7/16" bolt holes to clamp it in a vise....

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2.../tubejig02.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2.../tubejig03.jpg

made my mandrels from 5/16" bolts, 3/8" trans/brake tube and washers, i cut the 3/8" tube just small of 3/16" and 1/4" to keep the tube tight in the mandrel to keep the tube from kinking while getting tight bends....

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2.../tubejig04.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2.../tubejig05.jpg

then just used a shanked bolt as my tube stop bolt....

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2.../tubejig06.jpg

the washer is to keep tube the same height as the mandrel in the jig....

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2.../tubejig07.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2.../tubejig08.jpg

every piece of the jig can be mouhted in the bar as one piece for storage....

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2.../tubejig09.jpg

as you can see you can have both 3/16" and 1/4" mandrels in at the same time if working both size of tube at once....

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2.../tubejig10.jpg

only issue i found with this first model was the bar stock i used is kinda small, i'll be making another bigger plate for the bolt holes so i have a work area bout the size of 8" x 8" to work on while bending tube up....thx for looking and hope to see what others come up with "thumbsup" ........bob

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Thanks for posting this. This is just the type of thing I have been looking for. Also, let me say that you take great photos and explained everything in a clear and concise manner. If there were something I didn't understand, the pictures made it easy to figure out. Two thumbs up!"thumbsup"

Yes, bob1961 does a great job. I have had the pleasure to meet him in person. He does quite a lot with minimum resources."thumbsup""thumbsup"

that's guys "thumbsup", that's the MacGyver in me :lmao: ....if ya seen my 3 threads how i built the tigress there is more MacGyver there as well, plus my TT/scale build to boot........bob

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Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be sure to check out your other threads. "thumbsup"

Man this is great I love how it seats inbetween the washers to prevent kinking, awesome write up!

Looks like the tubing will still collapse. I used my thumbs for slight bends and a vise for tighter ones. Let the tube collapse, then tap is back to round with a small brass hammer.





p!nK

it still flatened a small bit, that is the nature of the beast in tight bends in small tube....but there was no kink in the tight bend in the picture....as long as those washers are tight on the tube no kink....good thing in how i made those mandrels is you can use a wrench to lock down on the tube and bend away without the tube moving "thumbsup" ........bob

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give me a few days and i'll set up and bend a piece and show the tight bend "thumbsup" .........bob

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thanks for the tip, I'll give that a try as well !

wow thats cool

can i interrest you in makeing me ome and how much would it cost me i need to now cost because i'm medcaly retired and have to plan on cost because of fixed income but a person who had a strock that left him parlized on rightside sure could use one of those for many things including help to hold stuff trying to get tools to build truck in futer havs a 1/8 redcat supercrawler as of now and son ang gandson have 1/10 trexras

I'm just passing this along, I personally don't believe it, though.

I have heard of someone filling a tube with sand to keep it from collapsing too badly. Don't know how well it'd work, never seen it done. On a rig such as pictured above, might get the inside of the bend flattened quite a bit, though.

the main fuction of a mandrel type die is to keep the sides of the tube from seperating and flatten the inside of a tight bend....the washers are the support the tube needs to NOT kink or flatten the inside of the bend....just like a mandrel on any tube bender....

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2.../tubejig04.jpg

look at the rear of my tubed frame i made with the bender i posted above....

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...es/frame13.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...ndingjig05.jpg

as you can see there is no widening of the tube where there would be without any side support of a mandrel....i'll post up a new picture of a tighter bend then in any of these pictures to show/prove how my mandrels work like the best made production benders out there "thumbsup" ...........bob

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ok nay-sayers that say tube will kink/flatten with my bender, here are the pic's :flipoff: :lmao: ..........bob

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...1/bender01.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...1/bender02.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...1/bender03.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...1/bender04.jpg

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I've been planning on making one of these for awhile. I need to bend up some SCX shock hoops (need those scale points!!) and this will be perfect. Thanks for posting in this thread again Bob...saved me the hassle of searching for it "thumbsup"

hey no problem c.h.u.d....if you can drill a hole and tap it anyone can make this "thumbsup" .........bob

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dude that is kick ass im building one tonight i have a 50$ bender that kinks the tube when i bend it make shock hoops those washers are the secret nice ingenuity great job bob and ive already seen ur build they are just as sick keep up the good work, thanks for the tip

hey thx a bunch j-b ;-) ....only thing i find with this one i have now is, there is no work surface....i'm making a new plate that will be bout 8" x 8" in the same thickness as the bar stock i have now....that will help with keeping the tube parallel when the get bent around like in the pic........bob

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Okay, my bad, I didn't say that very well. When I referenced flattening the inside of the bend I was referring to a thin walled tube filled with sand (such as this). I'd imagine once the brass .014 wall dents, the sand would push into the corner where your collar meets the washer. Looks like you're using some fairly stout tubing, though, so that's not much of an issue for what you're doing.



Sharp! Looks really nice.




I see stuff like this, and I think "Geez! What would the X,Y,Z chart look like for that?!?!" (X,Y,Z chart tells the CNC bender how to make the part)