Does anyone have a tubing bender?

Engine Room Artificer

Hot Rolled

Joined

Feb 28, 2007

Location

Gosport Hampshire UK

• Jul 11, 2007

• #1

The following is posted to assist a new member Gary W from Murfreesboro, who replied in the 'Ever Been Fired' Thread as the Post New Topic icon wasn't immediately obvious to him.


Does anyone have a tubing bender? I need to bend 1 1/2 inch OD diameter steel tubing and make a 23 inch inside radius. The 23 inch radius must be plus or minus 1/16 inch. The radius needs to be a 160 degree bend. I need to make several of these parts plus I have other parts too.

I hope someone can sort him out!

Al

 

J

J.Ramsey

Hot Rolled

Joined

Feb 27, 2007

Location

Kansas

• Jul 11, 2007

• #2

With that large of a radius and close tolerance the tubing will have to be rolled not bent.

 

J

jackalope

Titanium

Joined

Oct 8, 2004

Location

St. Peters, MO

• Jul 11, 2007

• #3

Ditto what JRamsey said. a CNC roller will do that. Best bet is to contact a local fab company that has a roller and have them do it. Expensive machine but it will give you a great bend result.

 

D

Damien W

Stainless

Joined

Aug 3, 2006

Location

Brisbane, Queensland

• Jul 12, 2007

• #4

I agree with the other posters. Al, you need to go in search of a business/jobbing shop with a radius bender and the necessary sized formers.

You also need to specify the dimension as internal, median or external diameter for the bend, although I'm sure that you would be aware of that.

 

lathefan

Titanium

Joined

Nov 7, 2003

Location

Colorado

• Jul 12, 2007

• #5

...Kent Fuller made some of the most beautiful dragster chassis ever built...by welding a plug on one end of the tubing...filling it with DRY sand...packing it tight...welding a plug on the other end...then heated the plugs and beat them in with a ball peen to pack the sand even tighter...then bent the tubing with a torch and a truck wheel for a form.

--------------------------------------------

 

M

metlmunchr

Diamond

Joined

Jul 25, 2004

Location

Asheville NC USA

• Jul 13, 2007

• #6

If I live for the next 800 years, I'll never have a clue as to why some true craftsmen are such gluttons for punishment. I can well remember when Kent Fuller was "the man" in rail chassis fab work. Hard to imagine a man so skilled as to be regarded as king of his craft, and, at the same time, ignore, or refuse to acknowledge, the existence of a few relatively inexpensive tools that would make his job immeasurably easier.

 

Mud

Diamond

Joined

May 20, 2002

Location

South Central PA

• Jul 13, 2007

• #7

I once campaigned a dragster I'm convinced was built that way, and I duplicated a header for a formula Ford that was built by bending the tubes over a coal forge. I used pre bent tubing, the hand bent header was more 'artful' looking.

In Fuller's heyday, what benders were available other than Pines type and conduit benders? Was Hossfeld making tubing dies then?

 

H

howitt

Aluminum

Joined

Jun 14, 2006

Location

Dayton OH

• Jul 13, 2007

• #8

Just because you grew up in the "Dark Ages" doesnt mean you have to stay there. The old style tube bending sound like cruel punishment

 

Ries

Diamond

Joined

Mar 15, 2004

Location

Edison Washington USA

• Jul 13, 2007

• #9

I have catalogs going back to before World War 1, with several different brands of Hossfeld style benders available.
I am not sure what Kent Fuller's Heyday would have been, but certainly by the early 50's, you would have had a wide selection of manual, semi-auto, and full auto mandrel benders, rolls, and even hydraulic benders available.

Some guys like tools, some dont.