Tube bending questions/advice for FNG

[bushhog750]

So I've never bent a piece of tube in my life and I went and bought a bender. I've seen a lot of tube bent and tried my best to pay attention and learn without asking to many questions and being annoying to the people I've watched and helped. I have a couple questions for anyone who is experienced with it. Some of my questions may be painful and hard to explain but I'll do my best.

1. How do you know when you bend a piece of tube that it will be as wide as you want when completed.
Example: Say I want to build a crossmember and the frame rails are 30" wide outside and I want to put 45 degree bends on both ends. How the hell do you measure so that when you bend both ends of the tube to 45 degrees that it will be 30" wide when completed. How do you measure for a certain width?

 

[Rokcrler]

Take a look here...
Bender did a nice write up.. http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/bendin_tube/index.html

 

[85toyo]

Bendtech Pro is worth every penny

 

[bushhog750]

I have read that write up several times. Great reading. I haven't tried this method yet but I will be tomorrow. I'm looking to see how other people do it and if there's any quicker or easier ways also. Basically looking for tips also. I've been reading for 4-5 days anything I can find about bending and notching. Just got set up today so this weekend I'm going to waste a lot of tube and money and try to start figuring it out slowly.

 

[bushhog750]

Bendtech Pro is worth every penny

I've highly considered that also. Just trying to hold out and see if I can learn the hard way before I drop even more money on the software. I just spent like $1300-$1400.00 on the bender, notcher and hydro kit so I'm trying to be a cheap ass for a few weeks. Lol

 

[tall boy]

as a novice to bending that bought a bender a few years ago I say do exactly what the pirate post says. It will save you a bunch of time and $ on tubing...

that being said we have built a few cages and a complete sami that have turned out pretty well for a few drunk asses in a 2 car garage

 

[bushhog750]

as a novice to bending that bought a bender a few years ago I say do exactly what the pirate post says. It will save you a bunch of time and $ on tubing...

that being said we have built a few cages and a complete sami that have turned out pretty well for a few drunk asses in a 2 car garage

That's pretty much my story right down to the 2 car garage. I don't plan on building a buggy or anything, I'm just tired of paying for **** that I think I can do or learn to do and then waiting weeks or months for someone to complete said work sucks. Figure if I can do it myself the only person I can be pissed at is myself.

 

[Warewolf SD]

I'm just as green if not more but something I did that helped a lot was take a piece of tube and mark it every inch for as long as it takes to make a 90 or 180 bend. Clamp it on the bender and bend it. You can use it as a reference for take up, back of 90 dimensions, how much tube you need before and after a bend, distance from die to clamp, distance from die to guide/rest etc. Good reference piece for whatever and it usually only cost a couple feet of tube.

 

[ranger11]

Re: Re: Tube bending questions/advice for FNG

I've highly considered that also. Just trying to hold out and see if I can learn the hard way before I drop even more money on the software. I just spent like $1300-$1400.00 on the bender, notcher and hydro kit so I'm trying to be a cheap ass for a few weeks. Lol

I consider the software part of the bender. I don't think I could learn to bend tube without the software. It really make life easy and if it were 1k ID still would pay it.

 

[bushhog750]

Re: Re: Tube bending questions/advice for FNG

I consider the software part of the bender. I don't think I could learn to bend tube without the software. It really make life easy and if it were 1k ID still would pay it.

So it's that good? I've watched a ton of the tutorials on YouTube about it. I don't consider myself a computer genius so I was kinda like **** that might be out of my league. Lol How hard is it to learn how to use the program in your opinion?

 

[ranger11]

Bending one tube at a time its easy, the assemble feature is harder to use. I couldnt grasp drawing it out on the floor like most did back in the day( 10 years ago lol) but I figured out the program on the 2nd tube I bent.. The hardest part was committing to do what the program said, however its only as good as what you put in it. I always add some on the ends, that way if a notch is off I can trim it down. Ive only built internal cages, bumpers and sliders. I know a few guys that dont add on anything extra but they are building full chassis..

 

[bushhog750]

That's about what I plan on building really. And then some stupid **** like cooler mounts and such.

 

[hjpcummins]

Re:

Just curious what bender did ya end up with

 

[ranger11]

If you want to come down to warner robins on weekend I will show you what I know, and let you play with the program before you buy it.

 

[bushhog750]

Re:

Just curious what bender did ya end up with

I got the JD2 model 32 with the swag machined hydro kit.

 

[bushhog750]

If you want to come down to warner robins on weekend I will show you what I know, and let you play with the program before you buy it.

**** I may take you up on that one weekend. My grandmother used to live there. I spent all my summers in Warner Robbins. Is the Rama movie theatre still there? Nu-way hot dogs?

 

[ranger11]

Re:

No on that movie theater but nu-way is still here. If you haven't been here in the past 5-8 years I doubt you will recognize it. It's has grown really fast. Warner robins is the new Macon minus bass pro and dicks lol. Just shoot me a pm if you wanna ride down I will give you my address.

 

[bushhog750]

It's been 15 years or more. And thanks for the invite. I may take you up on that. I have family and friends in Griffin that I visit pretty regularly. I may come take a look one day when I'm down there. Thank you.

 

[Beerj]

I was in the same boat as you, kinda still am. Right down to the 2 car garage and bending a piece like you described.


I tried laying stuff out on a sheet of brown paper but even that didnt work too well. The best advice I can give you is get some tubing the right size to be able to sleeve whatever tube you're using. (1.5 od fits well into 1.75 .120 wall)
That way if you do screw something up, at least you have the option to cut and sleeve and not have to scrap the piece you're working on. Good luck!

 

[bushhog750]

I've been looking at the Bend Tech software. I see they have several versions. Is this one of those things where you get what you pay for? I'm looking at the pro just in case I did decide I wanted to tackle a chassis in the far far future.