Tubing Bender- Rainy Day Project

[RudyO]

My project for when I can't work on the Blazer. Bought the plans from Takac's Cycles. Same thing w/o the die is going for $849.00 with a zone adder of between $90-$160 from the TP catalog. Got about $600.00 into this project with everything pictured.

 

[dremu]

Hey, that looks familiar ... well, except I haven't bought the steel yet nor laid it out in nice piles, but I have the plans, the jack and the pins from McMaster...

-- A

 

[RudyO]

Hard part for me is the 5/8, 7/8, and 1 3/8 holes. Got most of the 5/8s done today, and ordered a step drill bit that covers the other two sizes. Not all those nuts and bolts pictured are needed. I had to buy in bulk.

 

[cuervo]

Hard part for me is the 5/8, 7/8, and 1 3/8 holes. Got most of the 5/8s done today, and ordered a step drill bit that covers the other two sizes. Not all those nuts and bolts pictured are needed. I had to buy in bulk.

Fastenal kind of sucks about that.

I got pretty far on my hydro bender build up but then work got in the way. I'm hoping at some point durning this new couple of months I can get back at it.

I was using this site's design http://reference.toolandfab.com/writeups/hydrobender_webpage/images/27.jpg but when I was mocking up the bender it made part where you put the pins in bind up pretty bad. The guy that fab this one ended up putting brass bushings in to make it work.

I believe that this build http://www.mindspring.com/~jayk5/bender/ is a better way to do it. With the bending being mounted in a way that you are not using the long top 3/8 it doesn't have the binding issues at the pin.

 

[RudyO]

Finally got all the holes drilled. Boogered up the first 1 3/8" hole I tried on a 2.5" x 2.5" (5/8" thick) piece. The hole saw tore up the arbor. Spent half a day trying to find more 5/8, but got a foot long piece this time. The extra was cheaper than the cut. The step drill worked fine. Took almost a full day to measure and drill all the holes...

A buddy in the club is a certified welder, so he's got the pieces now, then it should come home for paint.

The guy at Fastenal is a club member also. He just wasn't working the day I bought the hardware, so now I get the club discount. Some of the extra bolts will be passed on to club members, as there are at least three guys that want to build one also, once they see how this turns out.

My saving grace on this project is my neighbor. He's a retired engineer, and I wouldn't have been able to do this as easily w/o the use of his horizontal bandsaw, drilling/milling machine, and the large size drill bits. Thx Al!