Tube Bender
 

Just thought I would start a thread on my tube bender project. It's not a buggy thread but thought someone might find it interesting.

I decided to try and build a bender using the plans from gottrikes.com. I'm sticking pretty close to the plans with just a couple adjustments. So far the project is going well. I've been able to get all the pieces cut & drilled so now it's time to put it together. I'm hoping to get that done this week. I did have to go to the local shop and have a couple holes drilled as I didn't have an 1 3/8 bit.

Anyways, here's a pic of my pieces minus a few nuts & bolts. Hopefully I'll have a pic of them welded together by the end of the week.

http://www.buggymasters.com/forum/pi...pictureid=1855

http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm

That's pretty awesome. I bet you saved alot of money building your own. Thanks for the link to the plans.

Very nice. Just for kicks, what did this set you back money wise? I know the JD benders are pretty expensive, and the dies are where most of the money is.

I'm really liking this design. The fact that it's portable and can be stowed away when not in use appeals to me. I've hesitated on making a purchase simply because of the dedicated space needed for a horizional bender. Keep us posted and let us know how this works out. I 'm curious to what the die's cost for this trick.

I also liked the portability of the design myself. The cost is adding up quick but I think I'll still be close to the same cost to a manual entry level bender by the time I'm done. You are correct in that the dies are expensive by themselves. This unit is designed to use the Pro-105 die sets from pro tools http://www.pro-tools.com/. There is a guy on minibuggy.net occasionally making die sets for sale.

Investment to date;
$18 : Plans
$85 : Air/Hydraulic Ram @ Harbor Freight
$60 : Bushings(Plans give the details so this is not needed if you have a lathe and
can make yourself)
$100 : Steel (Could be less or more depending on what you can get at salvage cost)
$50 : Misc Hardware & Hardened Shafts

Yeah thats pretty much what I have seen across the board, seems $300 is the magic number for benders, but yours will be hydraulic, which is always a plus. I know there is a bike builder here in town that has all that fancy equipment, and he told me he would anything I have in mind, but he charges $50/hr to do it, so I might save up a few projects and hit him all at once, thinking about new roll cage for the yerf, but $$ is tight right now.

Tight!? more like gasping for air!!!

Pro tools is hard to beat I worked there for a couple years they make a bunch of jd squares stuff also .One of those why did I ever quit that job .lol