Homemade tubing bender.

[donsrods]

We have a Protools tubing bender that we were not totally happy with, the plates that support the dies are half inch thick but bent so bad we couldn't get the locating pins back in. So my Son Dan ordered two new plates that are 5/8 thick and he totally redesigned the whole thing to operate vertically instead of horizontally.

He made a frame out of box and round tubing and this one will have no movement or flex at all. He just used it to bend a couple of pieces of 1.75 tubing for his roll cage and it worked like a charm. Here are some pictures:









He also added an air over hydraulic unit so we don't have to manually push a handle anymore, so much easier and precise.



Don

 

[smallfoot]

What a really nice machine!

 

[choppinczech]

Man, your son is talented! [cl

 

[Dirtyrat]

That thing would look great in my garage! What a nice piece of re-engineered equipment!
Can we see it in action?

 

[donsrods]

Thanks, guys. Yeah, I think we are going to video it working, he still has some tubing yet to bend for the Mustang, I'll post it if we do.

Don

 

[Dirtyrat]

Thanks, guys. Yeah, I think we are going to video it working, he still has some tubing yet to bend for the Mustang, I'll post it if we do.

Don

Thanks Don, I sure would like to build something like that some day, so seeing it in action will be cool!

 

[bob w]

Excellent adaption. Your son is good at designing and fabbing.

Yesterday I was using the JD2 bender I borrowed 5 years ago (he won't take it back). It is manual and bends in a horizontal plane. I have to bolt it to planks to keep it from rotating and the work wants to sag in the die.

Your set up is much better.