Harbor freight pipe bender mod.

cj5_jeep · Mar 11, 2011

Well for us poor bastards who bend pipe with their $80 harbor freight bender know that anything bent past about 30* gets dents from the outer dies not being true to form. So I'm trying something. Made two new outer dies that fit the contour of the pipe.

I bent a test piece to about 75*~80*......No dents. It works great!

Anybody interested is a set of these? These ones are for 1 1/4" pipe.

pokey · Mar 11, 2011

Nice. How much for a set for 1.5" ? Have you tried doing a full 90 ?

CHOP SHOP · Mar 11, 2011

I just welded two ol 2 inch long chunks of angle iron to my rollers years ago. The angle slides instead of not rolling and dimpling.

Ya also need to cut the side of that bender out as close to the roller pin holes then ya can bend out of the side of a bend too.

Avanteone · Mar 11, 2011

So are you still just bending pipe with it? Or are you bending tube?

Binder · Mar 11, 2011

CHOP SHOP said:
I just welded two ol 2 inch long chunks of angle iron to my rollers years ago. The angle slides instead of not rolling and dimpling.

This/\.....I used a piece of slightly larger pipe split in half...

cj5_jeep · Mar 11, 2011

Yep those are good ideas too.... Im just bending pipe....NOT TUBE. I haven't bent to a full 90 yet. I think I would make a set for $75 + shipping. Made from 4140 steel.

44newman · Mar 12, 2011

The best 90 Ive seen on a HF bender was with a custom die made from a rope shiv built up on the sides a little. It was a complete 1/2 circle that was about 16" across. The die would barley fit between the rollers on the widest setting. It would do 1.75 .095 wall fairly good, and a 90 no prob.

body damge · Mar 12, 2011

I just used a piece of 3/16 flat plate welded across and bent a piece up as scrap to bend the flat plate then welded the other side worked on all the sizes of dies it had :awesomework:

Dogboy · Mar 14, 2011

I use a piece of 2" tow strap on each side of the pipe in the die, and another piece of strap between the pipe and each roller.
Then when I bend, I mark the bend 3-5 times about 2" apart, and bend a little at each mark. I've got some pretty good bends with this method.

I like the machined roller idea! It would save half the headache.