Dieselchanic
Intermittent builder
I don't know how many of you bend your own tubing here and if you do you've probably got the right tools for the job. Alot of people use the Harbor Freight pipe bender cuz it's cheap, but its made for pipe, not tube. I modified mine to make bending dom easier and better.Here's how I did it...
First of all mounting it to an engine stand makes everything happier.
The problem I had with the bender is of course the die's are made for pipe, not tube, so they are the wrong size. I ground out the 3/4 die for 1 1/8" tubing. Now it fits pretty well. I also drilled a hole in the side of the die to mount a clamp that I made that keeps the tubing pressed hard into the bottom of the die as I've read that one reason it will kink the tube is it rises up out of the center of the die. Whether this is true or not I don't know but the clamp makes it alot easier to use because it holds the tube while you run the jack up.
I also replaced the rollers with a piece of pipe that has a large piece of pipe split in half welded to it. This creates a large contact slider for the tube to be pressed into preventing any kinking there.
And the final product.
Here are some bends I've made with it since the mods.
First of all mounting it to an engine stand makes everything happier.
The problem I had with the bender is of course the die's are made for pipe, not tube, so they are the wrong size. I ground out the 3/4 die for 1 1/8" tubing. Now it fits pretty well. I also drilled a hole in the side of the die to mount a clamp that I made that keeps the tubing pressed hard into the bottom of the die as I've read that one reason it will kink the tube is it rises up out of the center of the die. Whether this is true or not I don't know but the clamp makes it alot easier to use because it holds the tube while you run the jack up.
I also replaced the rollers with a piece of pipe that has a large piece of pipe split in half welded to it. This creates a large contact slider for the tube to be pressed into preventing any kinking there.
And the final product.
Here are some bends I've made with it since the mods.