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Tubing Bender....Need Another Recommendation

Joined
Jul 27, 2012
Location
PA, USA
All,
I'm slowly building the shop up. I got a job doing a making bumper/brush guards. So time to get a tubing bender. I'm needing to bend tubing similar to that of a roll cage so approx 1.5" with what.....0.063" wall. What is a decent hydraulic/manual bender? Looking at price range around $1,000-$2,0000.

Thanks a bunch!
 
I’m a big fan of JD2 bending products. I have their model 54 machine and it’s awesome. I just checked their website and you can get into one of their expandable machines for just at the upper end of your budget. The nice thing is you can buy the machine now and when you get tired of blacksmithing you can add a hydraulic ram later on. I would suggest coming up with a little more coin though, as they often run package deals on dies and it may make sense to spend a little more now to get a compliment of dies and be able to do more than just 1.5” tube at a set radius.





Be safe and stay healthy




Jeremy
 
Mine is the JD2 model 32 with electrohydraulic power pack, and is what I consider to be a professional grade machine. I have installed mine in an ancient Kennedy rollaway tool cabinet, as shown. Attached are photos of jobs I have done with it in stainless, including 316 stainless 1-1/2" schedule 80 pipe (1.9" OD x 0.145" wall).





 
Mine is the JD2 model 32 with electrohydraulic power pack, and is what I consider to be a professional grade machine. I have installed mine in an ancient Kennedy rollaway tool cabinet, as shown. Attached are photos of jobs I have done with it in stainless, including 316 stainless 1-1/2" schedule 80 pipe (1.9" OD x 0.145" wall).






That's some nice work right there.
 
That's some nice work right there.

Thank you sir.

Some details on the Bimini top frame:
Wiring for solar panels and antennas is run internally. The frame itself is integrated into the stern pushpits.

On the schedule 80:
this job was to replace nearly 50' of waste plumbing on a superyacht. The original plumbing (white in the photo) had been welded and pieced together in sections ranging to 10' in length and joined together with special couplings. These welded sections had failed catastrophically with severe leaks throughout the system, due to electrolysis. As the supports had all been welded into place when the yacht was built, and since no welding was allowed to be done onboard, due to insurance restrictions, the new piping had to be done to extremely close tolerances so as to precisely fit into the previously welded supports. All the new piping was created on the JD2 bender with no welds except to join it to the final gasketed flange (pictured).


 
Another vote for JD Squared...if you're going to focus on tubing. I have a Model 4 which will bend up to 2.5" round ERW steel tube, or 2" DOM/4130. The thing I like about the Model 4 is it has a large degree ring that's integral to the bender. The marks are far enough apart you can see 1/2 degree resolution pretty easily. I have mine set up with the air/hydraulic pump, but would probably go the electric/hydraulic route if I were to do it over again. To bend 1-1/2" x 0.065" wall, you're going to want the 6.5" centerline radius die.

If you think you might want to pursue bending other shapes, you might look into a Hossfeld Model 2. You will exceed your budget with the factory hydraulic setup. I have one of these also. It is not as optimized for bending tube on smaller radius die sets as the JD Squared benders, but will bend about any shape with the correct tooling, as well as do large radius work for round and square tube. Hossfeld also has a number of die sets for round tube that are available in smaller centerline radii than other manufacturers offer which has been useful to me when working on client projects where a designer specifies a small bend radius.
 
I am on my 3rd JD2 Model 4 over 21yrs. #1 was sold to an employee starting his own biz and not really able to afford a new one. So sold him my very well used one and bought a new one. (Had the counter sunk mounting bolts) #2 is still going strong and just brought #3 on line as we started to have bender bottle necks with only one bender in the shop.

Take care of your dies. And they last along time. We have bent well over 500k’ of tubing over the yrs with a Model 4. Specializing in roll cages and tube bumpers. That machine has made us allot of money over time.
 
That's some nice work on the boat. Beautiful!

helocat - What size tube/wall thickness do you usually use on roll cages and bumpers? I got one guy waiting for a tube bumper. Plus I might be doing a rollcage for a truck.
 








 
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