Scale tube bending radius

[HaSharetz]

I tried asking this question on a site I thought was geared more toward scale stuff and got a bunch of lame answers.

What radius are you using for the bends in your tube work?

1:10 scaler truck, looking for things like stingers, roll cages. I know it should look like the 1:1 stuff but I don't have one of those to go out and measure.

[bob1961]

look at my tube bender thread and what i use and the size of the inside radius....

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

i'm not sure how scale the radius is on what i use, but i'm in the process of making a new bender to make smaller radius's in my tube work....i need to make a new one as i sold the one in that thread.........bob

....

[rckjeep]

I prefer a 1" radius. I think it fits most things nicely. Here's a pic of my latest chassis all built with roughly a 1" radius. So you get an idea.

[Nate08]

I rarely use the same radius twice if not making parts that need to match side to side and Ive never measured a radius.

Building tubework is supposed to be fun not rocket science. Make your bends so they flow nicely within the design and with the body lines and call it good.

[pardonmyn00b]

My answer was not lame.

Stop over thinking it. Just bend the tube however much you want. Should be simple for an engineer.

If you want to get silly with it, print out a picture of what you are copying to use as a template and bend your tube accordingly.

[HaSharetz]

Originally Posted by pardonmyn00b

My answer was not lame.

First I tried painting the tubes blue,then red, but once the red and blue mixed, the whole mess melted into a purple metallic glop. The only thing I could do was put it into the 3D prototyping scanner's vat along with a picture of what I wanted to build and then, presto.

I just wanted a simple answer, or even a picture, so I can compare the diameter of the shock hoop to the diameter of the wheel and figure it out. I'm an Engineer not an artist, I want the cage to be strong enuf to be run over by a truck or survive a fall off a big ass hill.

99% of the time this is just for fun, but there are some very real and cool engineering problems to be worked out, these are real vehicles they're just smaller.

I know this isn't rocket science.... It's mechanical engineering

Tell me to paint the tube blue and it bends itself, but then tell me that you use a 1/2" radius, that's cool.

[HaSharetz]

Originally Posted by bob1961

look at my tube bender thread and what i use and the size of the inside radius....

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

i'm not sure how scale the radius is on what i use, but i'm in the process of making a new bender to make smaller radius's in my tube work....i need to make a new one as i sold the one in that thread.........bob

....

Thanks Bob, I did read your link and really liked what you built. I wish I had access to tools like that... many years ago I ran a fab shop.... Ahh glory days!

[C*H*U*D]

Originally Posted by HaSharetz

Thanks Bob, I did read your link and really liked what you built. I wish I had access to tools like that... many years ago I ran a fab shop.... Ahh glory days!

The beauty of that bender is it's simplicity. You can make it with a simple drill press...take your time and it can be made with a hand drill. The only tricky part is the spacer and that's not really tough either.

As for your question, 1:1's I've seen use 1.5" or 1.75" tube and 6.5" and 5.5" dies for bending. Since you're the engineer, I'll let you do the math to match the diameter tubing you are using to the scale you are building to...if you are off by a few fractions of an inch, nobody is going to notice.

[rckjeep]

Originally Posted by HaSharetz

First I tried painting the tubes blue,then red, but once the red and blue mixed, the whole mess melted into a purple metallic glop. The only thing I could do was put it into the 3D prototyping scanner's vat along with a picture of what I wanted to build and then, presto.

I just wanted a simple answer, or even a picture, so I can compare the diameter of the shock hoop to the diameter of the wheel and figure it out. I'm an Engineer not an artist, I want the cage to be strong enuf to be run over by a truck or survive a fall off a big ass hill.

99% of the time this is just for fun, but there are some very real and cool engineering problems to be worked out, these are real vehicles they're just smaller.

I know this isn't rocket science.... It's mechanical engineering

Tell me to paint the tube blue and it bends itself, but then tell me that you use a 1/2" radius, that's cool.

I'm not sure how painting tubing bends it, but I am probably the guy here that built a rig that has been run over by a truck......and survived it. Bend radius is important in adding strength but no where near as important as material and design.

click here

[HaSharetz]

Dude, That was an (is an) awesome tuber.

Thanks for the great answers/links/help

[Duuuuuuuude]

Originally Posted by pardonmyn00b

Stop over thinking it. Should be simple for an engineer.

[prifral]

If youre talking about actual tubes - as in hallow/not solid... the tighter you can get the bend w/o collapsing the tube the more scale it will look. Im speaking in terms of doing 90 degree bend or there abouts. Obviously your bends wont be all 90's on a rig but that is the ultimate test in a bender.

Solid rods are infinitely easier to bend though arent worth using to build with cuz of the weight gain. But you can get a solid to a 90 degree bend with no inner radius, literally a break.

[NGreen]

To be completely scale about it, I usually try to copy cages built out of 1.5" tube. In scale, you're talking 1/8" solid...that's not really as easy as it sounds, so lets go up to brake line. 3/16" brake line to represent 1.5" tube. My JD2 bender uses these dies.... https://www.jd2.com/p-44-m3-round-die-sets.aspx ......and you can get dies for 1.5" tube anywhere from 4.5"-7.5" line radius, so in scale again, we're looking for a bender that can do .5"-.75" radius. I'm lazy and figure that a 5/8" radius is good enough being between .5 and .75". So for that, I'm using this...

[C*H*U*D]

Originally Posted by 53Guy

To be completely scale about it, I usually try to copy cages built out of 1.5" tube. In scale, you're talking 1/8" solid...

You build in 1/12th scale? What do you use for axles and wheel sizes? Just curious.

[NGreen]

Originally Posted by C*H*U*D

You build in 1/12th scale? What do you use for axles and wheel sizes? Just curious.

1/8" solid is like 1.25" round, 3/16 is like 1.8" round. close enough either way for 1:10 scale.

[rckjeep]

Now that I think of it my bender isn't 1" its closer to 1/2" radius. It'll only do 90* bends but it works for most parts. THe shock hoops in the pic above are 1" wide in the center of the tube.

In 1:1 I usually buy the smallest radius die I can, as I prefer the tighter radius.

[ramenmeal]

Originally Posted by 53Guy

To be completely scale about it, I usually try to copy cages built out of 1.5" tube. In scale, you're talking 1/8" solid...that's not really as easy as it sounds, so lets go up to brake line. 3/16" brake line to represent 1.5" tube. My JD2 bender uses these dies.... https://www.jd2.com/p-44-m3-round-die-sets.aspx ......and you can get dies for 1.5" tube anywhere from 4.5"-7.5" line radius, so in scale again, we're looking for a bender that can do .5"-.75" radius. I'm lazy and figure that a 5/8" radius is good enough being between .5 and .75". So for that, I'm using this...

Hmm, I'm coming from the desert, most people use 2" tubing. Would 1/4" brake line be scale you think? I hear people put 3/16" inside of 1/4" for strength.

[Calderwood]

Originally Posted by ramenmeal

Hmm, I'm coming from the desert, most people use 2" tubing. Would 1/4" brake line be scale you think? I hear people put 3/16" inside of 1/4" for strength.

That would depend on what scale you are building...

[AX10wannabe]

i made these



^using this... its a solid rod bender that i made.

^made this using just a regular bench vise, a little heat and a hammer.


^made this bumper using a bench vise

made the bumper and the bottom of the chassis before i built the rod bender so if i had the bender i could have done a nicer job...

i use 1/4" solid rod from Canadian Tire.