Was looking at buying a tube bender, I was hoping to learn from anyone’s good or bad experiences with different brands. Things I should look for or stay away from.
Will be working with stainless/moly 3/4"-1 1/2"

Thanks for any input,

Tony

Tony, I have a JD Squared I bought about20 years ago, came out of Florida, it is a manual bender, but they offer it with air over. I've built several cars using it, nerfs and etc, I really like it, in fact, we had the tech man from NHRA ck our cars a few years back, and he questioned what brand of bender I had, he said he had never ck'd tubing, in a bend, that was so consistant in wall thickness, he was glad to know what brand it was. I had bought a 12t, electric log splitter a loooong time ago, to eventually turn into a bender, but all it ever did was mash beer cans, a job it handled real good, 12 of them would end up about 3/4" thick, but I mounted it on it, and it sure makes bending tube, a lot more fun. Another thing I liked about it was, their dies are 120 degree, where most are only 90 degree, and a 90 will leave a mark on the tube, because you always have to go past a bit, to get a true 90. I just ck'd, they have the model 3 on sale now, at $100.00 off, $395.00/at $295.00. Bob

We have Harbor Freight Bender, it's ok but leaves crimps in the bend. Works for off road truck & plenty of braces. We don't go fast so it'll be ok for us. The press HF has is JUNK, my son was using one at a former job & the plate broke, knocked his safety glasses off, & he needed stitches. Boss said he didn't use it right, saw another one 2 weeks later same press same broken plate. Worker said it almost took his head off. Our school uses a different press but we have a plexiglass shield on it, they didn't.

Those types of "benders" might be OK for making farm gates, or shopping cart corrals, but nothing you'd want to build a tube chassis with, you might as well take it to a muffler shop. The JD Squared will make bends you can be proud of, almost like mandrel bends, they pull the tube around a polished die, therefore it doesn't deform the roundness of the tube, like an exhaust pipe bender does. Spend a bit more, and get something you can be proud of, and if you want, you can still make farm gates with it! Bob

Thats why I posted about the HF bender on here, so the person didn't go get one & be disapointed w/ the results. It's ok for misc non safety items but definitely not a chassis or cage. Bumpers side bars maybe, farm gates, monkey bars ..... Yeah.

My dad has one that he bought about 15 years ago from Williams lo-buck Tools. like the JD squared bender mentioned above this one is manual but can be fitted with a hydraulic ram. They offer 90 or 120 degree mandrels and it also does a beautiful job with absolutely no crimping or wrinkling.

I don't even know if Williams Lo-Buck is still in business but if so their benders are top notch and pretty economical.

I got a JD squared manual one also. Love it. Takes a little arm muscle with the manual though. And yes they have tons of dies and thats where your money will be spent. I buy the 6 inch radius 120 degree ones so You can have nice tight bends, but they arent deformed at all.

Geoff

Geoff, hook that puppy up with an inexpensive rig like I did, and it puts the fun back into bending tube, just like having a CNC, or a cutoff saw over a hacksaw, I can bend up all the pcs for a chassis in less than an hr, and not even break a sweat. The first couple of chassis I bent up, I did in the manual mode, not a lot of heavy work, just a lot of walking, but not bad considering what it's doing. I mounted mine on the end of my Bridgeport table, when I needed it, and that worked out ok. I think I did buy my log splitter from NH, cost about $400.00 back then, cut the wedge off the end of it, and used the rest for the bender bed. Bob

Thanks for the input guys, the price of the benders aren't to bad. But the die I will work on making them.

Anyone have or used a Hossfeld??

Hossfeld's are a great general purpose bender. Tube, flat bar, angle, etc. they can do it all. The JD2 and Pro Tools stuff works basically the same way, but is more tailored to doing tube.

I would recommend checking out www.offroadfabnet.com for more bender information. There is an entire forum there dedicated to benders and bending.