[Ben.T]

Going to build our own roll bar and kickers but dunno if a tubing bender from NOTHREN TOOLS is what we need or if they are any good for this project..

[10secvega]

If it's like this one,No it will kink the tubing/pipe.You need a mandrel bender to do roll bar tubing.

[61bone]

Don't know which one you are looking at, but most of the so called tubing benders from these outfits are really pipe benders. They won't do a good job on tubing because the forms won't fit the countours of tubing, Tubing and pipe have different diameters for the same size. Expect to spend 500 and up for a tubing bender, good ones over a grand.

[OneMoreTime]

Jd squared and pro tools make the good manual benders..and they have the dies to fit the tubing you are using..

Sam

[yknot]

I don't know your budget... or if you plan on doing this sort of thing more then once, but I have always been a sucker for GOOD tools, and never mine did saving for them. If I was to buy a Tubing Bender it would not be from Northern Tools, nothing wrong with Northern Tools, just not for a bender. I would look around and try places that sold professional fabricating tools like Trick Tools, they have everything from pro to beginer.
I recently purchased a bending outfit from them and they are a joy to work with, both before and after the sale. A good bender represents a huge financial undertaking, and you'll find the bigest expense is the dies, and not really the bender itself.
I bought the JD2 Model 4 Bender with hydraulic power, cart and 6 sets of dies. So far the bender has worked great and is everything I wanted. Good luck with yours.

Features:

Hydraulic powered
Easy setup and operation
Self locking ratchet. Prevents material springback.
Large radius degree wheel
Quick change dies
High bending torque over 60,000 in./lbs.
Durable heavy duty steel construction
Ships UPS
Capacity:
Round tubing to 2-1/2" (.120" Wall)
Square tubing to 1-1/2"
Pipe up to 2" schedule 40 and 1-1/2" schedule 80
Flats up to 3" wide and 3/4" thick

[MAUSS]

I bought the JD2 Model 4 Bender with hydraulic power, cart and 6 sets of dies. So far the bender has worked great and is everything I wanted.

Now that's more like it!

[novajohnb]

Ben T. as others have said the pipe benders sold by Northern, Harbor Freight, etc are for PIPE not TUBE. Roll bars are made from tubing. Pipe is measured by inside diameter (ID) and schedule (wall thickness). Tube is measured by OD. Trying to use the pipe bender would be a waste of time and $$ tubing.

If you only want to do one roll bar/ cage and dont want to spend $500+ for a bender, plus the learning curve involved you have a few options.

A. Get a pre-bent bar/ cage. S&W, Chassis Engineering (sold through jegs/ summit) and a whole list of other chassis shops sell them (they go on sale periodically.) Cheapest/ easiest way to go. Downside may be shipping costs.
B. If you have an uncommon car or like to design and DIY there are a few options here:
Find a local chassis or fab shop to bend the tube for you. Around here the going price is $7.50 per bend. Roll cage might have 10 - 15 bends. Roll bar 4-10 bends. To make things easier to visualize (especially if you have bends in two planes), make a template using electrical conduit (1" or so.) Buy or rent a cheap conduit bender and bend the conduit pattern by hand. Bring the shop the template you made and they'll make an exact duplicate out of roll bar tubing.

Also some chassis companies like S&W do custom bars/ cages based on your measurements. Again shiping may be expensive if you're not local.

Bottom line is the investment in a tube bender may not "pay back" for itself after making only a bar/ cage or two.

[BAILEIGH]

Originally Posted by 10secvega

If it's like this one,No it will kink the tubing/pipe.You need a mandrel bender to do roll bar tubing.

You are going to have a hard time making a roll cage with that.