Tube bender advice

[Mattco]

I am throwing around the idea of buying a tube bender for my shop but the dies are stupid high. If you I buy one and want to buy a do it all size die, what size would that be for building both a good looking roll cage for my street driver and a heavy duty cage for my mudder?

Most of my jobs that I could potentially start using it on for handrails call for 2" galvanized pipe but 2" seems awfully big for a good looking cage. Am I wrong on this one?

 

[BanditBronco]

Most vehicles under 4k in the race world use 1.75" tube, most new style roll cages are made with 1.75 DOM. Most trophy trucks and heavier faster offroad cars use 2" Chromo. Older bronco cages were mostly 2" and up so I would say if your side work uses a 2" die then get one of those and call it. A 2" cage in a bronco won't look out of place in my opinion.

 

[JSmall]

I use a JD2 Model 32. When finished, I will have used 1", 1.5" and 1.75" tubing in different areas. 1.75" on the roll cage, 1.5" on the engine cage, and 1" for the fender supports on the engine cage.

Not finished yet, but you can see what I'm talking about.

 

[AZ73]

Craigslist

 

[Apogee]

You also need to think about the die bend radius, since the tighter radius dies will not do as thin of wall thicknesses as the larger radius dies. That said, I went in with my brother on a Pro-Tools 105 and we have 1", 1.5", 1.75" and 2" dies in what are basically the tight radius configurations since we probably won't ever do any thin wall chromoly tubing.

 

[bmc69]

That said, I went in with my brother on a Pro-Tools 105 .

That's the one I have, with the hydraulic ram upgrade. I've got dies for tubing from 7/8" to 2", pipe to 2", square tubing....it adds up to a lot of money in dies.

Been real happy with the bender though, especially after adding the hydraulic kit. Bought it first with just the manual setup.

 

[Apogee]

Been real happy with the bender though, especially after adding the hydraulic kit. Bought it first with just the manual setup.

X2...converting to hydraulic from manual and building a cart for it made it 100% more fun to use, not to mention 10X faster. Love the hydro and portability. When using it in manual mode, you need a solid anchor point, which means drilling and sinking concrete anchors in the garage/shop/driveway. Invariably, wherever you put it, it will be in the way, so the cart and hydro setup fixes all of that.

 

[71Broncitis]

I have a JD2 model 4 with Electro-Hydraulic power.

1.25", 1.5", 1.625", 1.75" and 2" dies.

I've used the 1.25" for seat mounts to the cage, grab handles, tubular inner front clip, etc.

1.75" for most cage work with some 1.5" spreader bars and x bracing.

1.625" came with it, never use it. It's a common size for some race cars I guess.

Rarely have used the 2". A friend bought that die to build his cage.

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[Mattco]

I have a JD2 model 4 with Electro-Hydraulic power.

1.25", 1.5", 1.625", 1.75" and 2" dies.

I've used the 1.25" for seat mounts to the cage, grab handles, tubular inner front clip, etc.

1.75" for most cage work with some 1.5" spreader bars and x bracing.

1.625" came with it, never use it. It's a common size for some race cars I guess.

Rarely have used the 2". A friend bought that die to build his cage.

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I have looked at the JD2 model 3 and leaving it manual since I am doing two trucks at the most unless I truly enjoy building cages then I might go to a more advanced if I deem it worth it.

I figured that the 1 3/4" die would most likely be the most one die for all. What radius would be best for .120 walled dom or a .188 wall? I would assume that either the 5.5 or 6.5" would work fine for both.


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[71Broncitis]

I don't use my bender often. In fact, I now have it on long term loan to my buddy who was using it more than me so it did not take space in my shop.

Either CLR will work on .120" or .188" (that's very heavy for a cage) wall. Can't recall if my 1.75" die is a 5.5" or 6.5".



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[Digger556]

I have a JD2 model 3

Definitely get the hydraulics.

I have 1.5", 1.75" and 2" dies and the 1.75" gets the most use followed by the 1.5" The 2" hasn't been used in years.

BTW 2" pipe is not 2" tube. The JD2 2" die will only bend tube, either DOM or HREW.

I built my cage with 1.75" x .120" DOM SRA tubing. Using that material, the computer models have it withstanding a 4G roll over impact (Per FMVSS 216 static test.) With proper design you can cage with 1.75". 2" could be used for high speed applications like desert racing.