Tube bending service needed

[abland]

Hi,

I haven't had any luck locally (Portland, Oregon) finding someone that can bend a couple of pieces of 4130 round tubing. What I have is two pieces (1.5" x 0.058 and 1.25" x 0.058) that each needs two 90 degree bends with at least a 6" radius. Does anyone on here know of a place that can do the bending for me? It would also be great if they could supply the material as each is piece is over 72" long.

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[Royldean]

check the local speed shops. Most will have a hossfeld type bender for roll cage stuff. They'll probably even have (or be able to procure in small quantities) the tubing...

[edit] and after actually seeing your avatar, I'm wondering if this is old news for you. But there are easily 20 outfits around me that could do this, so I have a hard time believing there isn't somebody in Portland that can do that (there is a pretty big motorsport population there).

 

[abland]

I've been told that the minimum wall thickness they will bend is .065". I don't want to go that thick for this chassis build.

Andrew

 

[LKeithR]

I've been told that the minimum wall thickness they will bend is .065". I don't want to go that thick for this chassis build...

Yeah, .058" is mandrel bender territory--I doubt many speed shops are going to have that kind of equipment. You might actually have better luck with furniture manufacturers; possibly aerospace. Try to find something in the Seattle area...

 

[mowclyde]

There's a place in Clackamas called Get Bent. Their sign says mandrel bending. Don't know anything about them other then that. I was next door having a spray on bed liner done.

 

[Mud]

I've done that in 1.5" X.058, depending on the hardness of that batch of material. 7.5" Radius is more reliable. The 1.25" X .058 X 6 should be no problem.

Try asking at Yellow Bullet Forums - Powered by vBulletin

 

[Graham08]

I've done that in 1.5" X.058, depending on the hardness of that batch of material. 7.5" Radius is more reliable. The 1.25" X .058 X 6 should be no problem.

Try asking at Yellow Bullet Forums - Powered by vBulletin

Ditto that. I have a JD2 Model 4, with a 6.5" radius die for 1.5", and sometimes 0.058" wall 4130 bends without issue, other times I get wrinkles or have the tube collapse altogether. Domestically sourced tubing (Webco or Plymouth) has a much better success rate than the no-name Chinese stuff.

 

[toolsteel]

Last time I went to a privately owned exhaust repair shop for my truck the guy had an old bender he used that ran from old IBM style cards..........no idea if you have anything similar around you or if that size/type of pipe would be doable.....but it may be worth a phone call or 3...

 

[Oldwrench]

Try not to mandrel-bend chassis tubing. It irons the wall thinner on the outside of the bend. If you can't use a longer radius bend use heavier wall tubing. Condition N is not annealed, it's not even a process anneal. The material will work-harden if deformed severely enough.

If you're going to be driving it, just think about this (and its corollary): You'll never know if you made it too heavy.

 

[adama]

Old wrench, if its set correctly maderal bending can actually increase the out side wall thickness. They do this by pushing the tube into the die as they bend it using follower block assist. Takes a bit more setting up and better tooling to do but is a std industry thing when it really matters

 

[freeflyer]

Try these guys. Tube Bending & Fabrication - Columbia River Mandrel Bending

 

[Mark Leigh]

This is for a Drag Car I assume ---- Have you exhausted all the chassis shops around area ?

 

[barky]

Follower block/Pressure die assist never really imparts the kind of linear force your thinking. The available friction between the tube surface and die surface doesn't allow for it. You either need a tail clamp boost device (old tech) or a POB boost. One of our machines delivers 9 tons of linear boost through the POB. We have only ever had to run it up 58%, works great. Not trying to be a wise guy, just trying to contribute to the knowledge base on here.

 

[ecortech]

While this is a doable job, it is right on the edge of easily doable.
It will take someone with a lot of experience and the right material, to do this on a JD2 type bender.
They may well use up a few lengths of tube before they have success.
A mandrel bender no problem, but they are not as readily available as the JD2 type.
So you have to ask yourself is this really worth the time and effort to track down someone with a mandrel bender?
For 72" of 1 1/2" tube the weight difference is just a tick more than 1/2lb .5964 lbs lighter than .065"
For 72" of 1 1/4" tube the weight difference is .5292 lbs lighter than .065"
If both of these tubes are in the same chassis total weight savings will be 1.1256 lbs.
I have designed and built numerous race chassis both oval track and drag cars.
Make your bends out of .065" easily done, not hard to find someone to do it.
You can easily make up the weight difference somewhere else.
I've yet to see a driver that can consistently be faster in a car that is 1-2lbs lighter.
Theoretically it should be better, but in reality there are far too many other variables that affect the car much more than 1.125 lbs of weight.

 

[abland]

I'm not super concerned about total chassis weight but I plan on stepping down the upper frame rail from 1.5" to 1.375", then to 1.25" towards the front. I won't be able to do this if I go with a .065" wall tubing.

Andrew

 

[jlevie]

I suspect this would be possible on a Hossfeld if the tube was filled with something like Cerrobend.

I'm not super concerned about total chassis weight but I plan on stepping down the upper frame rail from 1.5" to 1.375", then to 1.25" towards the front. I won't be able to do this if I go with a .065" wall tubing.

Why not? The larger tube end could be stretched or the smaller tube end could be swaged.