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The Official Tube Bending Thread

7K views 40 replies 17 participants last post by  BAILEIGH 
#1 ·
Hello, my name is Shane and I work at Baileigh Industrial here in Wisconsin. We deal with the Hot Rod and Restoration crowd on a daily basis and would love to get involved on the board and help out in our area of expertise.

We have a whole team of metal fabrication experts here and we specialize in tube bending and odd applications.

So, I will start this tube bending thread. If you have any questions about roll cages, bending tube or pipe, application issues, what wall thickness will work or not, wall thickness vs. center line Radius or what material will bend. Pretty much anything related to tube bending......ask away.

Shane
 
#3 ·
home brew said:
I've always wondered when and why would you use pipe and when and why would you use tubing?
I've been doing this for a long time, so I have talked to allot of guys out there about their applications. Tubing is best used for roll cages, frames and chassis... etc.

Pipe is often used for hand rail, fencing, gates and fluid applications...etc

Believe it or not, I have had a couple guys call who were building Rock Crawlers out of Schedule 40 pipe. It's rare, but some guys are doing it.
 
#9 ·
home brew said:
I've always wondered when and why would you use pipe and when and why would you use tubing?
Pipe is a vessel for carrying fluids. It is made to an INSIDE measurement and this measurement should remain consistent regardless of the outside measurement.

Tube is a structural member made to carry loads and is manufactured to the OUTSIDE measurement and a load rating which will remain consistent.

Technically speaking you should be using tube to build stuff with and pipe to carry the water/brake fluid etc. but that doesn't stop people interchanging uses without a problem if you know the limitations.
 
#11 ·
dalesy said:
Welcome to the machine........

Just what are the limitations? Besides the measurement differences; is one superior or inferior to the other in terms of overall strength, bendability, or fab-ability? Is pipe made of a lesser grade of steel than tubing?
To be quite honest with you, I am not a metallurgist. So questions about grades of material and what they are made up of, I am probably not going to be too much help.

But I sure do know tube benders and tube bending applications. I also know that if I was in a roll over, I would want my cage to be made of tube and not schedule 40 pipe.

Your bend quality will depend on your wall thickness and how tight of a bend you are trying to achieve, in addition to what type of bender you have. Too tight of radius and too thin of wall on a rotary draw or rotary compression bender, you will get ripples, even tighter, and the tube will crush like a pop can. That is why exhaust bending is not very successful on a rotary draw bender. A mandrel bender is needed.
 
#13 ·
Welcome to the Hotrodders Bulletin Board, BAILEIGH :welcome:

Be sure to check out our business posting guidelines (although it looks like you may have already).

You can also add your biz url to your user profile, and you can submit your homepage url to our Knowledge Base, as well as any other "info" pages you may have on your website. All of this is free, of course.

People may also be interested in the Library of Metal Fabrication that's posted on Bayleigh Industrial's website.
 
#14 ·
Jon said:
Welcome to the Hotrodders Bulletin Board, BAILEIGH :welcome:

Be sure to check out our business posting guidelines (although it looks like you may have already).

You can also add your biz url to your user profile, and you can submit your homepage url to our Knowledge Base, as well as any other "info" pages you may have on your website. All of this is free, of course.

People may also be interested in the Library of Metal Fabrication that's posted on Bayleigh Industrial's website.

Thanks Jon.
 
#15 ·
You guys have alot of nice looking machinery. Is it manufactured here or overseas? The rdb 100 bender looks like it would be the perfect addition to any shop needing an economical manual bender. The ratchet wheel looks alot easier to use than the bar type ratchet that JD2 has. I also like the fact that it can bend on top of the frame, instead of between the frame. My Hossfeld can be set up to bend on top, and that makes a big difference in time spent bending tube to fit.

Later, mikey
 
#16 ·
Mike, JD2 has a rotory bender like the 100. I have the model 3 that I finaly converted to hydroulic last summer. Bend some .083 1 5/8" CM manual for a few years and you get worn out. .125" wall mild steel is a breaze after the CM and quite a bit less spring back.

I realy like the bend tech pro software I have been using for about 5 years now. I would recomend it as an add on to anyones bender.

Mike
 
#17 ·
powerrodsmike said:
You guys have alot of nice looking machinery. Is it manufactured here or overseas? The rdb 100 bender looks like it would be the perfect addition to any shop needing an economical manual bender. The ratchet wheel looks alot easier to use than the bar type ratchet that JD2 has. I also like the fact that it can bend on top of the frame, instead of between the frame. My Hossfeld can be set up to bend on top, and that makes a big difference in time spent bending tube to fit.

Later, mikey
Hello Mikey,

All of our tube benders and tube notchers are built right here in Wisconsin. How long have you had your Hossfeld? Those benders have been around since the beginning of time it seems. I have talked with 100's of guys who grew up bending on those machines.
 
#18 ·
Mike H said:
Mike, JD2 has a rotory bender like the 100. I have the model 3 that I finaly converted to hydroulic last summer. Bend some .083 1 5/8" CM manual for a few years and you get worn out. .125" wall mild steel is a breaze after the CM and quite a bit less spring back.

I realy like the bend tech pro software I have been using for about 5 years now. I would recomend it as an add on to anyones bender.

Mike
X2

Bend Tech is a must when bending tube.
 
#19 ·
All should be aware of the SFI Foundation..this group tests and certifies safety gear for the racing community..

http://www.sfifoundation.com/ for more info,,

most of the major race sanctioning bodies subscribe to their program and it should be noted that pipe is not a listed material for roll cages and chassis..so we use tube which is a listed material for that purpose..

I have a JD2 bender (manual) which has proven to be adequate to what I need to do..main reason I have a bender is the fact that there are not all that many people around here that can bend a tube for the individual car builder when one is needed of a certain specification...

Sam
 
#21 ·
BAILEIGH said:
Hello Mikey,

All of our tube benders and tube notchers are built right here in Wisconsin. How long have you had your Hossfeld? Those benders have been around since the beginning of time it seems. I have talked with 100's of guys who grew up bending on those machines.
I learned on an old Diacro in metalshop in HS, then was using a model 1 hossfeld starting in '85, which was in another shop I worked in, and I built a copy for myself in '91 and built a bunch of dies. Then in '95 I got a good deal a larger model 2 hossfeld with some dies. It has a capacity of 2" with the hydraulic attachment, but I think I am going to make a manual torque multiplier for it with a set of sprockets and large chain. That way I can still bend manually without dissassembling the hydraulic setup.I also have a greenlee hydraulic rotary draw bender, with 1 1/2 dies but need to make or buy some dies for 1 5/8 ,1 3/4" and 2" tube.

I also make my own small tube benders for some of the things I do with SS tube.

A friend of mine had a JD2, and it was a nice machine as well.

I rarely buy anything new, but people ask me about benders and know a little, so I like to keep aware of what's out there.

I like to hear about stuff still being made in the us. :)

Later, mikey
 
#22 ·
powerrodsmike said:
.

I rarely buy anything new, but people ask me about benders and know a little, so I like to keep aware of what's out there.

I like to hear about stuff still being made in the us. :)

Later, mikey
You and me too Mike, I have a 51 year old Pexto stomp shear and I did buy my JD2 used with one set of dies (1 1/2") and then it got expensive 1", 1 1/4", 1 5/8", and 1 3/4", degree ring and hyd. conversion. Not all at once as needed for different jobs.

I did a 4130 roll bar in an 86 Corvette today with it and the hyd. pays for itself every time I use it. I mounted it to a 2"X18" piece of steel so the bender is somewhat portable. My shop is small and no mater what something was in the way when you were trying to bend a main loop, not any more, and when you are not using it you can put it the corner out of the way.

Mike
 
#23 ·
What are your thoughts on bending 1" DOM with a .219" wall on a 2" C/L radius? I have a Jd2 bender and they don't offer a die for it. I can make a die, but did not want to go to the trouble of making it to find out that heavy tube won't bend that tight.
 
#25 ·
IIRC, the minimum centerline bend radius that I could get out of my homemade dies was about 3.5 times the OD of the tube. Anything less and they'd kink.

Later, mikey
 
#26 ·
rdb300

hi shane
i just managed to get youre model rdb300 here in the uk a couple of weeks ago.
of to give it a try today making a roll cage for an english ford pop.

have used it a bit to do A arms and seams a superb machine.
a lot user friendly than my manuall bender.
a question regarding die raduis.
i have a 1 5/8" 6"clr for doing the cage but did try to bend an offcut of stainless 1 5/8" x 1.5mm wall but as you stated it wrinkled the tube.
what would be the ideal die radius for doing thinwall stainless in 1 5/8".

only ask about that sise as i wouldnt mind doing a set of headers.

to anyone else using any bender the bend tech software is superb.got the se version here.
thanks
wayne
 
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