Tube bender stand advice

[toyodaaddict]

How heavy duty does a tube bender stand need to be?

I built a stand from 2" sch 40 pipe and 1/4'' plate. I haven't mounted it to the floor yet and I'm second guessing if its going to be strong enough. What do you guys think?

 

[TreeClimber]

I used 6 inch (half inch thick) square tubing, welded to half inch plate. It doesn't move.

 

[CHOP SHOP]

If your bolting it to the floor, it doesn't need to be that stout at all. Just strong enough to hold up a long chunk of tube.

If bolted to the floor it will take up a decent amount of real estate if you plan to bend cage hoops and such from 12'+ chunks of tube swinging around.

I mounted mine to a 4" box tube post and welded that to a 2'x2' piece of plate steel that is solid 1 inch thick and put wheels on all four corners. Its heavy enough to support a 20' stick of tube hanging out of it and I can roll it into a corner when Im not using it. Mine is hydraulic tho, if your talking manual then your going to be mounting it solid to something unless your base plate is large enough to stand on while pulling the lever/arm.

I have seen folks mount them to a receiver tube and plug them into a hitch on a truck and back into the doorway of the shop while bending tube.

 

[POR]

I have seen folks mount them to a receiver tube and plug them into a hitch on a truck and back into the doorway of the shop while bending tube.[/QUOTE]

Don't lie.. that was you :haha:

 

[toyodaaddict]

We are going manual for now. We are planning to mount it to the floor, in the center of a large shop. We wont be using it all that often so we will just unbolt it and put the bender/stand away between projects, when it gets in the way.

This is a total learning experience but you gotta start somewhere :stirpot::corn:.

Assuming the current stand isn't stout enough. Kinda what I had in mind is 2x4 x 1/4" wall tube with 1/2'' plate, most likely two pieces of 1/4'' welded together. I'm trying to keep the cost of the stand to a minimum, so i'm hoping to find what I need in the rem pile at the metal place. This should be plenty strong enough for manual bending, right?

 

[boardbysled]

I've go my manual bender mounted in the shop floor with 4x 3/8" bolts, works good, mounted with 3/16" square tube.

I was initially going to go with the hitch idea, but decided against it as I'm often working in my shop when it is raining as well as my driveway out of the shop is about a 6% slope, which would make offset bends a real pain.

I have enough room where I have a 6' cheater bar on my bender handle, definitely makes it easier to bend. Someday I will upgrade to air/hydro.