dies for cage building

[zboss]

Building a main hoop for a 69 Camaro out of 1.625 chro-moly. What radius are you guys using?

[Blake Foster]

5" or 5.5"

[djorgensen3]

I think mine are 6" but don't hold me to that...

[BBC71Nova]

I looked into this before purchasing my 1.625" die as well. The advice I got was to buy the smallest CLR available that is spec'd to bend the minimum wall thickness tube you are bending.

I was bending 1.625" .083 wall which happens to be the minimum wall thickness on the JD2 Model 4 5.5" CLR die so that's what I got. So far, so good. I've bent some 90 degree bends and haven't noticed any issues.

John

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Keep in mind that some race club rules have .120 wall thickness minimum. Making the chromo useless

[Chad-1stGen]

Also, some sanctioning bodies specify a minimum bend radius. For example the SCCA specifies that the bend radius must be a minimum of 3 times the diameter of the tubing. So 1.75" diameter tubing must have a minimum radius of 5.25"

[zboss]

I had meant to reply several months back, but I forgot...

Thanks for the suggestions guys. A local shop uses 6.5" for theirs, so that's what I went with. I agree with your consensus, a tighter radius would have been better. But I'm happy with what I got. I'll probably run a few drag strips a bit more than the autocross, so I went with a NHRA sportsman style cage. I'll do some autocross for fun, but I don't plan on being competitive at it. Any one know what radius bends fits a nitrous bottle? This is the first tubing I've ever bent, it was pretty enjoyable...

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/a411/shadrock79/ZBOSS/AAF10C7A-0321-48E6-893D-49D4C01B860F_zpsma07owpz.jpg (http://s1033.photobucket.com/user/shadrock79/media/ZBOSS/AAF10C7A-0321-48E6-893D-49D4C01B860F_zpsma07owpz.jpg.html)

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/a411/shadrock79/ZBOSS/C289EDA4-33E4-483E-8267-F40BA82ABAC6_zpshdvhmvoz.jpg (http://s1033.photobucket.com/user/shadrock79/media/ZBOSS/C289EDA4-33E4-483E-8267-F40BA82ABAC6_zpshdvhmvoz.jpg.html)

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/a411/shadrock79/ZBOSS/43DBD19C-6B24-477D-A335-0AA86F7DCBC1_zps8holu0c9.jpg (http://s1033.photobucket.com/user/shadrock79/media/ZBOSS/43DBD19C-6B24-477D-A335-0AA86F7DCBC1_zps8holu0c9.jpg.html)

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/a411/shadrock79/ZBOSS/D536E190-519E-4EE6-80E4-058A7A614278_zpsb18tky64.jpg (http://s1033.photobucket.com/user/shadrock79/media/ZBOSS/D536E190-519E-4EE6-80E4-058A7A614278_zpsb18tky64.jpg.html)

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/a411/shadrock79/ZBOSS/69217603-9E0F-47B6-A649-8CB8249141AB_zpsqsunmoax.jpg (http://s1033.photobucket.com/user/shadrock79/media/ZBOSS/69217603-9E0F-47B6-A649-8CB8249141AB_zpsqsunmoax.jpg.html)

[Vince@Meanstreets]

nice work!!

[Sieg]

Well done Sir! :thumbsup: