I need to bend some 1.5" thin wall Al tube (not structural, obviously). Conduit benders don't come that big. I think a Harbor Freight pipe bender would be fine for the job. Anybody local have one I can borry? If not I may pick one up (they're even on sale at the moment).

That type bender wont cut it, you'll end up kinking the tubing using something like that. I have bender, but Im on the other coast

I've heard these aren't very good, don't make mandrel bends, etc. But I was hoping it would work on annealed thin wall Al. I don't see a huge difference between it and some of the plans for benders online. This one just looks like a big conduit bender to me.

The bender in the link you posted has a die that supports the tube, the pipe type bender you pictured doesnt support the pipe, and it will collapse as you try to bend it. I have one of those harbor frieght benders, I bought it years ago to try and find a cheap way to bend tubing, it never worked

I finally bought a Lowbuck bender, it works very well. Speedway motors now sells Lowbuck style bender for $425

A true conduit bender will work fine.. as they supprt the tube, and dont allow it to collapse whilst bending

oops it $399 now, Speedway

Do you mean this die?

Sorry, lousy image. Do you mean the big die or the little ones in the Speedway picture? Thanks for the help, btw.

Jon,

Contact Sonu (914 1.8t ), we were just talking about this during lunch yesterday. He has a 1.5" tube bender, not sure what type. I'll PM you his number...

The one you have pictured from HF will work, but you have to fill the tube with sand and block both ends off. PITA, find one to borrow!

I don't know if I've ever talked to Sonu. Nice way to meet someone, "Hi, I'm Jon, let me borrow your stuff, ok?"

I know Tony could do this for me but I'm trying to do as much myself as I can (without everything looking like butt), plus I'd like to learn from it.

Thanks for helping me decide against another piece of crap from HF I don't need.

not sure what you are trying to do, but you could just buy pre-bent tubing, cut and weld


prebent 6061 tubing

QUOTE (Mueller @ Feb 9 2006, 11:51 AM)

not sure what you are trying to do

I'm building a flamethrower for tailgaters.

I'm building a heat shield bra

QUOTE (neo914-6 @ Feb 9 2006, 02:54 PM)

I'm building a heat shield bra

I bought a hf PIPE bender. It works on pipe. A tube bender is for tubing. They have different size dies. A round and round racing local guy makes individual die sleeves to go in pipe benders to fit tubing sizes. I think pipe is sized as id and tubing is od or the other way around I get them mixed up till I measure them.

I also bought the speedway tube bender. I looks like some of the other brands so you can shop around there may be a better deal. The dies are what runs the price up. Also if you are going to do a lot of bending a air over hydraulic one might be better.

If you only need a few bends heres a lower cost company for aluminum mandrel bends: Aluminum and stainless mandrel bends

Charliew: I notice the Speedway model has a roller for a follower rather than a die. Are you happy with the smoothness of your bends?

Pack the tubing with sand, close the ends and bend it around something a bit smaller than the diameter you want...

Bend the tubing and open to release the sand.. With the sand inside, the tubing won't collapse at the inner radius of the bend..

Things to bend around can include propane tanks (gas grille and hand unit), CO2 gas tanks on welders, old car rims or any other reasonably solid round thingy....

Ken

Know any electricians? We have a hyraulic greenlie pipe/conduit bender at work. They work very nice. Sorrry, they for sure would not let me take it home.

Wilhelm I hate to say it but I haven't tried the speedway bender yet but I think I saw almost the same bender somewhere else cheaper. In the speedway instructions it says to use a lubricant to keep from galling the wall of the tube.