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Travis77
02-06-2008, 06:53 AM
Hey guys,
Have any of you ever used a Greenlee pipe/ conduit bender for building their roll cage? Would this style do gradual bends like over fastback door window. Want a very tight fitting cage. Also, to those that have built cages, how important is it to have the smallest radius bender possible? Thanks


http://houston.craigslist.org/tls/542324166.html

68protouring454
02-06-2008, 06:59 AM
thats not gonna bend 095 or .134 dom, look at pro tools manual bender or others. to get a decent hydraulic tube bender your gonna spend 1,500 minimum, and a 6 to 7 inch radius is perfect for most roll cages

www.vansantent.com
i got the jmr bender and its killer

Hoot
02-06-2008, 06:46 PM
if you're doing what i think you're doing, you need a tubing roller like this one:

http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=18583&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=1406&iSubCat=1409&iProductID=18583

OOCustoms
02-09-2008, 09:46 PM
just so your clear on why its important to have the proper tool......what you need for a roll cage tubing bender is a "mandrel tubing bender". Mandrel benders pull the tube around the radius thus preventing the tubing from crushing. benders that push the die into the tube like the greenlee and cheap copies will crush the tube or even kink it. you can not use that rolling type tube bender for roll cages especially main hoops due to tight bends needed, and that bender in eastwood will not handle roll cage grade tubing. that thing is only good for light tubing. and a roller type bender has to go back and forth several times to get the final bend so it would be hard to duplicate bends over and over. look at vansant and they should have manual mandrel benders for about 500 or so. Check out the links below. tubeshark is a professional model the jd2 is an affordable model that is perfect for the home shop. and good price too! hope ive steered you in the right direction.

http://www.tubeshark.com/
http://www.jd2.com/

Marc

B Schein
02-09-2008, 11:24 PM
OOcustoms I think you are confused on what a mandrel bender is. You will never find a mandrel bender for $500 they are more in the ranger of $20000 with little to no tooling. A mandrel bender does what the name implies it puts flexible mandrel inside the tube that flexes with the bend and keeps the tubing cross section round. The type of bender you are buying from Mitler brothers or the like is just a tubing bender with a follower shoe this keeps the bends consistent but you will notices at the start and stops of the bend the tube will have mark in it were the cross section of tube is out of round. If in had a mandrel inside it that goes away. Any way mandrel bender is not necessary to roll cage.

Travis77
02-10-2008, 08:40 AM
Did not realize that Greenlee was that cheap:( .
But I did noticed on their website that it's radius is way too big.
From the little I have read and have always assumed, I will most likely need several benders/rollers to get a professional looking cage. So now I guess its time to make a decision on whether or not buying the tools would be justifiable. Sure seems like a lot of my project money ends up going to tools. What would be a reasonable price for 8 point cage with removable crossbar. The car is a 67 fastback that has no interior, floor, and soon to be dash.Thanks for the replies.

68protouring454
02-10-2008, 01:13 PM
1300-2k, just the dom tubing will be 300-500
you do not need several benders to do a professional looking cage, the pro tools bender will do it, just your arms will be bigger after

Travis77
02-10-2008, 03:37 PM
I plan to call around. Thanks again.

Garage Dog 65
02-10-2008, 04:01 PM
Hi Travis !

Thought I would jump in. I have a Pro-Tools bender (HMP200C) and I can do a basic roll bar with no problem. Mine was $640 plus 67.00 in shipping. You do need to pump the handle - but I can bend 110 degrees easily in thickness up to 1/4 inch wall. I have a 6 inch die - but they carry all the way down to 4 in if you wanna go that tight.

Check my build section where I posted pics @ http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=5109&page=10

I'd highly recommend a digital level (mine is a SmartTool version) and get the how to bend tubing from Mittler Brothers. In their video they specifically walk through how to measure, setup, bend and check a 4 point roll bar. They provide the math formulas, radius charts and even give a real world way of doing the project with very little math. I watched the video a couple times taking notes, put together my measurements, plugged them into the formulas and nailed it. I found it VERY helpful as I'd never bent anything bigger then brake/fuel lines.

Another option is to do a paper template with measurements - and send those to someone. I used one of our sponsors here Ironworks Speed and Kustom for the hoops I needed that I couldn't bend - and they built what I needed and got them back to me. See page 14 of my build and you'll see those driveshaft hoops.

Good luck and remember - YOU CAN DO IT !!

Jim

PS, you will want to get the mittler brothers tube clamp for the SmartLevel too - man I CAN'T live without that assy !

Travis77
02-10-2008, 07:25 PM
Thanks so much for the info.. Sounds like good advice to follow if I decide to do it myself.

OOCustoms
02-10-2008, 10:15 PM
OOcustoms I think you are confused on what a mandrel bender is. You will never find a mandrel bender for $500 they are more in the ranger of $20000 with little to no tooling. A mandrel bender does what the name implies it puts flexible mandrel inside the tube that flexes with the bend and keeps the tubing cross section round. The type of bender you are buying from Mitler brothers or the like is just a tubing bender with a follower shoe this keeps the bends consistent but you will notices at the start and stops of the bend the tube will have mark in it were the cross section of tube is out of round. If in had a mandrel inside it that goes away. Any way mandrel bender is not necessary to roll cage.


thank you brian for not tearing me a new one for that mess up. I was on the right track but my terms were off. I was under the impression mandrel was draw type bending. i was definitely wrong. so yes draw type would be his best bet and thats what i was trying to imply. thank you for the clear up on that! i appreciate it!

Marc

Jimmy Sean
12-04-2008, 09:25 AM
I have been doing some research on tubing benders and wanted to share. I also didn't think there should be another thread so I'm adding to this one.

You can buy the plans here http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm this is the one I'm going to build and I will be doing the air over hydrolic version. Here is a whole lot of information on it http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=376183
This one makes the most sense for me considering that it doesn't take a lot of floor space to bend tube, it bends it vertical.

Here are some others I have found.
http://blindchickenracing.com/Tools/Tube%20Bender/Tubingbender.htm
http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/tube-bender/tube-bender.html
http://www.rorty-design.com/content/No.3_bender_plans.htm
http://www.pro-tools.com/ there are free plans from them. I also have the pdf if anyone wants it.

I will post up pictures as soon as I start this project.

Ketzer
12-05-2008, 11:17 AM
Thanks Jimmy, just ordered up a set of those plans too.


Jeff-

Silver69Camaro
01-12-2009, 04:12 PM
You will never find a mandrel bender for $500 they are more in the ranger of $20000 with little to no tooling.

$20k would be cheap for a good mandrel bender. Ones similar to the benders we use are around $200k. But, like everything, you get what you pay for.

MAXX2
05-08-2010, 04:40 PM
$20k would be cheap for a good mandrel bender. Ones similar to the benders we use are around $200k. But, like everything, you get what you pay for.

We're almost overwhelmed by the info on this site, which we just found a few days ago.

This thread has answered every question we were going to ask, and now you have answered it for us.

HERE'S THE QUESTION WE WERE GOING TO ASK-

Looking to buy our own Tubing Bender for the next Race Car buildup.

Doing our own 14/16 Point Cage, suspension modifications, exhaust (?), and will split the cost of whatever we purchase with at least 2 other 'Car Nut' friends here in town. One is one of the greatest fabricators you could ever meet, the other makes welding look easy, and his knowledge speaks volumes, as he is well sought after in his profession.

On our particular car buildup, we’re tucking the roll cage tight to the body, and most of it would be hidden with the interior installed, so a cage kit from anyone won’t fit.

Anyone have experience with buying a good one??? We need to make sure whatever we buy makes fairly tight radius bends, as the various racing organizations refuse to let you use a bend with the ‘Crimp/Kink’ look in it.

We can post some pics of the rollcage that was built for the '69 El Camino we sold last July, and you can see how the builder had to fabricate everything, as this was a difficult installation.


NOTE: Can we show our main racing website link below our signature, or is that a N0-NO???

MAXX
MAXX2RACING

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

rixtrix1
04-01-2012, 01:50 PM
Been wanting to get a tubing bender for a long time. Downloaded the HMP200 plans from Pro-Tools several years ago,but just got around to start building my version recently. I deviated slightly from the materials list to use what I had for materials and to fit the tools I have at my disposal for the fab work( drill press, chop saw, Lincoln SP-175 Plus MIG, and the brake lathe at work). It's almost done; I'm making the 1.75" x 6" die from 6061 aluminum using a brake lathe and a radius cutter I made myself. The die groove isn't finished yet in the pics. I just roughed in the cut before using the radius cutter. Makes a huge mess! So far I have $108 in materials spent.

I'm planning on turning my '66 malibu into a track car and have to revise the rollcage to different specs( 1.75"x .120 DOM vs. 1-5/8"x .134 ERW).

Ric

Tuske427
04-09-2012, 12:43 AM
Just chiming in to share my experience. I hope it'll be of help..

I bought the Eastwood tubing bender last summer with the intention of making my own cage. My first time using it the 1.5" die snapped in two while bending 1.5" x.120" DOM tubing. I was able to complete my hoop supports after drilling and bolting the aluminum die back together- going very slowly.

The second time using it the 1.75" collar stretched apart like butter trying to bend 1.75" x .125" DOM tubing. After rebuilding it with stronger material the bottle jack just didn't have the power to bend the tubing. My neighbor had a better bender and he helped me make the cage.

We made it without any CAD software, etc. We followed the procedure listed here:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/articles2/tech/bendin_tube

It was rather easy to do (just make a template of your bender with a piece of scrap material and a cardboard template) and we came very close in accuracy. I'm talking less than one inch variance for the main hoop at the bottom. The cage more or less fell into place in the car. You can read more about it, and see pics on my build thread.

If your cage will be less than the material I listed above I think you could get away with the eastwood bender. If you are using the same or strong,er definitely get something else. Also, it's only rated up to a 90º bend, but with material spring back you will get a little less.

Eastwood did replace my broken parts, btw.

I hope this helps.

rixtrix1
04-11-2012, 10:21 PM
Here' s a pic of my 6"CLR x1.75" die so far. Almost done.

rixtrix1
04-22-2012, 08:33 PM
Finished my Pro-tools HMP200 type tube bender. Only thing I had to buy prebuilt was the top pivot bolt assembly from Pro-Tools. Works very well. Only takes about a minute to bend 90 degrees. Now that I know it works. I'll wait 'til HF has another sale and get an air/hydraulic jack(I'm old and lazy!) I did just recut the die to make the fit tighter and the distortion is very minimal now. I have enough material in the die to make another pivot hole to do 180 degree bends, I think. That's the next experiment. Total cost so far: $184
Ric

Garage Dog 65
04-23-2012, 08:20 AM
Congrats ! Nice job !! :thumbsup:

Be careful when you do off-set bends. You'll end up with dog legs if it's just slightly off between the 2 bends. I purchased a smart level and set that on a 12 inch piece of conduit mount, tightened the clamp down on the tube and set it to zero before pulling the bend.

Jim

rixtrix1
04-24-2012, 12:52 AM
Thanks, Jim. Good advice. I've got a smart level and am going to make a mount for it, as well as a stand to get the bender up off the ground a little.

Ric

Hotrod1
04-30-2012, 09:37 PM
I built this one and it is fantastic. Have done a cage and it works beautiful.

http://gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm

tn10.5guy
06-08-2012, 10:12 AM
lots of good info here. I like the shark bench w/ both the bender and notcher together, but thats a pretty steep price for a diy/ hobby person to take on. I will prob buy the jd2 model 32 hyd. I already have a air/hyd unit from work i can put with it and a stand should be easy enough to build but not sure of material cost (or if I can build it for 135.00 there price). I already have a small notcher and welders so my next purchase will be a bender. Thanx guys for all the info and insight