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Thu Dec 13, 2012 12:55 pm

I thought I would resurrect this bender thread, as it has some useful input from a couple of active posters that could add to the other information here:

I just got my HF PIPE bender back from a friend who was using it for bending rebar. I am about to launch into some fabrication of some add on parts (spare carrier, roof rack, trailer hitch, etc.) and want to reclaim my HF bender as a useful tool, so I am planning on trying some of the modifications discussed in this thread.

Anyone reading this thread back a few pages will see that after my failed attempts at using the HF bender I bought a different one to complete my cage work.

My question(s) are for WilliamA and JoeCool: Joe's mod uses a shoe fabricated from tube that attaches to the outside radius of the die(Page 1)...WilliamA's mod (Page 2) was to fabricate shoes(dies, really) that replace the rollers on either side of the die on the end of the hydraulic ram. His design leaves the apex of the bend open, depending on the friction of the roller "dies" to keep the tube from slipping and kinking.

Any reason why using both mods together wouldnt be a good idea?

Thu Dec 13, 2012 1:06 pm

If I were to do-over, I would do both mods. (I actually guess I sill could, just lazy)

William's mod is easier and quicker than mine.

Thu Dec 13, 2012 2:09 pm

I think I'll try both. Won't be that much of an investment of time. Do you recall if your shoe was a section of a 90 degree bend, or was it slightly less? Couldn't tell from the pics.

Thu Dec 13, 2012 2:48 pm

The shoe is a piece of leaf spring from a Jeep Wrangler that I heated red hot and wrapped around a piece of DOM tubing, then cut to length.

Thu Dec 13, 2012 2:53 pm

It was the DOM part of the shoe that I was referring to. Is that part a piece if an old 90?

Thu Dec 13, 2012 3:00 pm

I am not following. The die is from the HF Kinker. The shoe I made form the jeep leaf spring.

Thu Dec 13, 2012 3:43 pm

Sorry, I was looking at a picture other than the one you provided. Your leaf spring appear to be welded to a short section of tubing to form the outer shoe on the die. I had seen a different version that had a longer piece of tubing as part of that outer shoe, but it wouldn't have made any sense to have a bend in that.

Thu Jun 05, 2014 6:43 am

HF Kinker update - Problem Solved!

I could not get my bender bend without kinking the tubing; I tried the sticktion shoes and the strap without success.

Upon further review I noticed the 1.25" shoe was too wide. So I heated the shoe with a torch and beat it mercilessly until it fit just right around some 1.25" DOM tubing.

Trial runs worked great for 90 deg bends with just the sticktion shoes. No strap.

The HF kinker is now the HF bender! Tada

Thu Jun 05, 2014 6:47 am

Quick question - Why does my bender work upright, but will not while laying down for horizontal work (on the little stands)?

Any suggestions on repair?

Thu Jun 05, 2014 7:17 am

Even with the high priced professional benders, the tubing has to fit tightly in the die or it will kink. I was successful using the HF Kinker because the 1 5/8 tubing I like fit perfectly in the die of the HF Kinker.

Maybe check the hydraulic fluid in the cylinder. Laying sideways may drop the fluid away from the pump inlet and not allow it to build pressure.

Thu Jun 05, 2014 8:35 am

Just my 2 cents worth....

We sometimes use mandrels here at work when we bend tubing that cannot have any kinks in the bend. The mandrel slips inside the tubing before you bend it and bends with the tubing. Then you pull it out when the bend is complete. The mandrel a series of round disks connected with a cable that allows them to follow the bend yet be pulled out afterwards.

Here is a link to a picture of what they look like.

http://tubularfab.com/info.html

Fri Jun 13, 2014 7:38 pm

New to the site. I enjoy looking at it. And am a new owner of 2vw bugs. I really like working in the garage. I actually bend tubes all day at work and own a manual bender at home. Here is a formula we use at work to figure out bends and the straights you have in between bends. Just thought it might help some people out. You can take the degree of bend X center line radius you are using X 0.01745 and that will tell you the amount of material it takes to make that bend. So if you are bending a 90 degree bend on a 5 in radius. It would be 90x5x0.01745=7.8525 amount of material to bend the 90 degrees. That would be start of bend to the end of the bend. To where it starts back out at the straight.