Building a electric/hydraulic tube bender

Mad Dad · Mar 2, 2009

Has anyone here ever build their own electric/hydraulic tube bender? I have a brand new pump assembly from a 10000lbs car lift and access to hydraulic cylinders. Before I try to re-invent the wheel, I was wonder if someone else could share their plans or tell me where to find plans.

Thanks!

Timw · Mar 2, 2009

The hydraulics are straight forward, no real secrets. The problem with making your own is the dies, rollers and shoes needed for good bends.

alan speyrer · Mar 2, 2009

Mad Dad said:
Has anyone here ever build their own electric/hydraulic tube bender? I have a brand new pump assembly from a 10000lbs car lift and access to hydraulic cylinders. Before I try to re-invent the wheel, I was wonder if someone else could share their plans or tell me where to find plans.

Thanks!

I own a JD 2 tubing bender, it can be manual or hydraulic, bought it from tricktools.com

jackalope · Mar 2, 2009

I built an electro/hydraulic set up on my JD2 bender a while back and then did a write up over on another forum perhaps 4 years ago. As others have said, straight forward. If you want a link, I can get it, but I am not sure you can view it if you are not a member.
---Grant

Mad Dad · Mar 2, 2009

Hi Tim,

I have one of the cheap Harborfreight 12 ton tube benders. I was going to steal the dies and rollers from that. What are you refering to as "shoes"?

Alan,

I'm aware of J2D, but I really want to build my own if possible.

Wyoming · Mar 2, 2009

If you want to bend tube, you'll need more than the simple dies offered in one of those HF "pipe" benders...they aren't for tubing. Without a close tolerence inner and outer shoe die you are going to get a substantial amount of deformation. To look up the various dies and the methods used to bend tubing try either the JD2 or Hossfeld site as both offer some good photos.

A bender frame is an easy enough build. There are a number of different sites offering up plans. Personally, I'd look into which manufacturer offers the type of dies for the bending you anticipate doing, prices and variety offered and work from there. If you are doing mostly tubing, stick with a JD2 or similar design due to the ease and precision of the bends. If you think you need a universal bender, go with Hossfeld. I will tell you either manufacturer will be a money pit when you start rounding up the dies you need.

metlmunchr · Mar 2, 2009

Agree with the above posters. The HF bender is for rigid conduit which is dead soft and made in pipe sizes. That bender won't do a good job even on bending standard steel pipe since its harder than conduit. As far as tubing is concerned, it'll kink it long before it starts to put a decent bend in it.

Chris Figgatt · Mar 2, 2009

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/showthread.php?t=170082&highlight=draw+bender

Here's good thread.

Chris

Mud · Mar 2, 2009

Here's a thread on a really nice home built bender

http://www2.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=343427

Timw · Mar 2, 2009

The HF Bender is designed for pipe. If you already have one of them there is a trick to using it to bend tubing.
First you bend a piece of pipe, 1" for example. You then cut the pipe in half at the bend around the radius. You take the inside piece and use it for an insert for the HF shoe. Pipe is measured ID , tubing is measured OD so the insert gives you the right size for tubing.

Wyoming · Mar 2, 2009

Timw said:
The HF Bender is designed for pipe. If you already have one of them there is a trick to using it to bend tubing.
First you bend a piece of pipe, 1" for example. You then cut the pipe in half at the bend around the radius. You take the inside piece and use it for an insert for the HF shoe. Pipe is measured ID , tubing is measured OD so the insert gives you the right size for tubing.

While it will probably work in this manner, you're putting a lot of variables into a bend that needn't be there with proper equipment. You still have no bending shoe to keep the tubing from deforming. Will it really be able to provide a repeatable bend or just a sorta/kinda approximation of bent tube?

Mad Dad · Mar 3, 2009

I found these plans online http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm

Anyone built one using these plans? Take a look at the website and let me know what you think please.

dsergison · Mar 3, 2009

not much throw. (looks like) you may bend 90 with a single stroke. which is probably adequate. any less and it would suck.

as others said. all the expence is in the dies. you do not want to make your own. I have tried. big PITA. worth the $200 a set.

Wyoming · Mar 3, 2009

Mad Dad said:
I found these plans online http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm

Anyone built one using these plans? Take a look at the website and let me know what you think please.

I haven't tried one of this design, but the bender appears to be quite workable. 180 degree bends are possible, but still depend upon the max each die set will allow. Downside is still the cost of the dies. If you are just getting into this you may not be aware that each size tube AND each corner radius requires a seperate inner bending die. Check out that site's pricing for dies and see if you can live with it. before you put down any money for any bender make sure you are going to be happy with that style bender because once you start buying dies it becomes economically a dead-end street if you want to change to a different type bender at a later date.

thewskrs · Mar 8, 2009

You can find the absolutely the easiest to build plans on pro-tools.com. You have to probe a bit but the free plans are there. Or email me at [email protected] and I can send them to you. They have as reasonable dies as anyone and the bender is very easy to build with or without hydraulics. I have the plans for a JD2 type unit also.

Baileigh inc · Jun 25, 2009

Mad Dad said:
Has anyone here ever build their own electric/hydraulic tube bender? I have a brand new pump assembly from a 10000lbs car lift and access to hydraulic cylinders. Before I try to re-invent the wheel, I was wonder if someone else could share their plans or tell me where to find plans.

Thanks!

Check out Pirate4x4.com

There are a ton of guys there building their own benders.

HelicalCut · Jun 25, 2009

An old thread but a current project, a good insight into the operation of a rotary draw bender is the US7380430 patent. The bender in the patent, swings the end of the tube through half the bend angle which may be a problem with a long tube in a confined space.
A neater implementation uses 2 rams at 90 degrees or 2 rams driving 90 degree crank throws to get 180 degrees like a 2 cylinder steam engine. Another way is to use a short stroke ram driving a rack to turn the former pinion. If you only need 100 degrees or less in one bend a single ram pushing the wiper die arm will work fine.

You tube has some good footage of rotary draw benders in action.

I am using a heavy duty worm reduction unit to drive the drawing die through an arc, while keeping the wiper die stationary

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