HF Tubing Roller and Notcher ???

[bighead]

Your right, a PIPE bender wont bend TUBE. To properly bend tube, you need a mandrel bender which are pretty expensive. Why DOM? Welded seam works just fine.

fill the pipe with sand and get Mandrel bends with a HF Bender.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWT3N3m4bE4

 

[newrider3]

The key to good bends with the HF bender is that you can't do the bend all at once.
You start where the center of your bend will be, and make a mark on the tube. Then you make two or three marks on either side an inch away from each other.
You start at the middle mark, bend a few pumps, then bend a few pumps at the outer marks, working outward until you have your bend.
It gives a larger radius, but greatly reduces the chance of kinking.

 

[Imbo]

x2 3/4" gas pipe is great for building things with! I've found that the cheap pipe/tube notchers from places like Harbor Freight end up cutting significantly offset. You'll probably need to shim either the tube clamp or mandrel guide to square it up. For mitering angles or offset notches that you can't do with your tubing notcher, an angle grinder and half-round file the same width as your tubing will work just as good (if not better) than the notching rig. Since you're planning on building a chopper Imbo, will you be using a frame jig?

yes i will be using a Jig for this build because my plans come with jig plans.

also i know about the pipe filled with sand technique but i dnt have sand nearby and i really dont want to purchase sand from a store.

@newrider would you need to do the larger radius bends with pipe? or is that just with tube?

 

[redsox985]

Couldn't you use any old sand from a hardware store? Kids' play sand, the stuff for sand bags you'd load into a pickup bed in the winter, etc. I'd assume any sand would cut it.

 

[bighead]

I buy 40lb sacks of sandblasing/ciggarette sand for like $7 a bag. Play sand is also very cheap.

 

[Imbo]

The thing is...do you NEED the sand for actual pipe? I thought that was for tubing. I'm as Always not all out against sand but it just seems very time consuming

 

[devino246]

The thing is...do you NEED the sand for actual pipe? I thought that was for tubing. I'm as Always not all out against sand but it just seems very time consuming

Ive made perfect bends in schedule 40 pipe without sand.

 

[Imbo]

Ive made perfect bends in schedule 40 pipe without sand.

how tight were these bends? like were there like almost 90 degrees?

 

[freakboy]

if your notching just use a drill press with a vise and hole saws

 

[Imbo]

dont have drill press...i dont have really much room for tools and stuff cause im working in my crowdedass garage. once the snow and ice melt here me and my dad are gunna build me a workshop so i may get a drill press then. but for notching i plan on using some kind of template and an angle grinder. should work fine

 

[freakboy]

Getting a drill press on craigslist and some hole saws at home depot will save alot of time and using a drill press is just soooooo much easyer then using hand drills.. you can acctualy probaly make a jig with a peice of pipe that fits over the pipe your cutting tack weld it on.. then shove the hole saw down inside the jig and use a hand drill to drill away

 

[The Mechtician]

how tight were these bends? like were there like almost 90 degrees?

If your bender is in good shape, set up properly and lubricated, you should be able to bend way past 90 degrees without kinking (in fact, as the portly fellow mentioned in the video, you have to bend past 90 to account for springback). The only time I've kinked tubing with a hydraulic bender is when bending rusty pipe that had been salvaged from an old natural gas system. You won't have that problem with new pipe.

Make sure you grease or oil the shoe of the bender, and make sure the rollers are in the correct holes. Get yourself a set of 2 angle finders or 2 magnetic torpedo levels and a protractor. Alternately, I use mine flat on the floor with an adjustable T square, like this one:

 

[Imbo]

If your bender is in good shape, set up properly and lubricated, you should be able to bend way past 90 degrees without kinking (in fact, as the portly fellow mentioned in the video, you have to bend past 90 to account for springback). The only time I've kinked tubing with a hydraulic bender is when bending rusty pipe that had been salvaged from an old natural gas system. You won't have that problem with new pipe.

Make sure you grease or oil the shoe of the bender, and make sure the rollers are in the correct holes. Get yourself a set of 2 angle finders or 2 magnetic torpedo levels and a protractor. Alternately, I use mine flat on the floor with an adjustable T square, like this one:

thanks

 

[saebajacaptain]

You do realize theres something other than DOM and pipe, right? Welded seam tube is about a third of the price of DOM, but sized the exact same. Pipe is sized by ID, tube is by OD. Id go with welded seam tube, and maybe bump up the thickness a few hundredths of an inch.

exactly, electro-weld seamed tubing is incredibly cheap and is sufficient enough to make a chassis out of, thats what we ran for a majority of the sae buggy for a couple years. also, im not sure, it depends on your location, but due to the fact that they had to ship DOM so much farther, it was actually cheaper to buy chromoly tubing than DOM but we've recently been running DOM tubing due to the slightly increased strength versus electro-weld and its a much lighter material than chromoly. i guess i havent had a problem with trying to find a different bender as we have a winton bender in the shop

 

[Doc Sprocket]

I really would think that appropriately-sized ERW is more than sufficent for the vast majority of projects on this forum.

Regarding chromoly, I have heard that in order for it to retain its original strength it as to me properly heat-treated after welding, or it's a total waste of money. Anybody able to verify this?

 

[Lynx_Genisys]

just in case you hadnt noticed, you can get the plans to build what seems to be the better style of bender, for free, right here:

http://www.pro-tools.com/200k.htm

all you'd have to do is buy a bit of material n all that, and as for the all expensive dies, if you're oly gona use 1" pipe for the bike, just get the 1" dies..

You can always get other sizes later when the need arises.

~L~

 

[Doc Sprocket]

just in case you hadnt noticed, you can get the plans to build what seems to be the better style of bender, for free, right here:

http://www.pro-tools.com/200k.htm

all you'd have to do is buy a bit of material n all that, and as for the all expensive dies, if you're oly gona use 1" pipe for the bike, just get the 1" dies..

You can always get other sizes later when the need arises.

~L~

After I read this^, I requested the plans. I just recieved them five minutes ago. Problem #1- The freaking dies for this thing START at $200!!!!!

 

[Torquerolljoe]

I recently finished my homebuilt tubing bender and it uses the same dies. They are not cheap by any means, but the bends are really nice!!! Here are some pics:

and

 

[Torquerolljoe]

Here is where I bought my dies from, TMR Customs. http://www.tmrcustoms.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=14_72_77_85 Tim Rogers is a super nice guy and excellent to deal with. When he asked where I found out about TMR, I told him I read the Pirate 4x4 forum, he then gave me 10% off of his listed prices!! That's customer service for you!!!

 

[Lynx_Genisys]

I recently finished my homebuilt tubing bender and it uses the same dies. They are not cheap by any means, but the bends are really nice!!! Here are some pics:

and

where are the pics??

Dang it!!

i see all over the place ppl using this bender and that bender.. they are almost always nice, and also cheap. homebrew, plan built, store bought, etc etc etc..

what i NEVER find, is pics of the bends themselves..

i have total access to a pipe bender, but a crush type.. *POUTS*

i wanna see the bent pipe from some of these things, so i can find what does the job nicely...

pics with tubing type/thicklness etc would be nice, as different types and sizes/thicknesses changes the outcome.. *Sighs*

one day, this info will become apparent.. however, i dont know why it isnt already, as it is, (IMO) ione fo the most imp[ortant key parts of the info!!!

~L~