Air/hydraulic bender frame - JD2 tubing bender + HF tubing roller

TimeWarpF100 · Dec 15, 2012

Very nice and thanks for sharing!

Will this work with the older JD2 benders? The one I have is 20+yrs old now.

Which reminds me its sitting out in the pouring rain . . . . 50% or our typical annual rainfall in just 2 days.

I like your Gantry crane too!

I had someone ask for plans and they had never made a single post! They wanted pretty much full plans so they could copy it completely. Never really had plans just made the cart up with what I had laying around. Did not have time to make up the plans just so the poster without a single post could have them . . . Great service with detailed plans. Thanks again!

dbtindustrial · Dec 18, 2012

SteveL said:
Can this be easily adapted to bend flat or square bar stock? Thinking up to 1 1/2" wide. Nice design by the way!

Thanks for the compliment! JD2 sells square dies for square tubing. HF offers a set of rollers for 1/2" square stock that can be used for rolling flat or machined on a lathe to roll square tubing. I even saw a post from someone who used the round rollers to bend square tubing. It chewed up the roller or course, but it was possible.

dbtindustrial · Dec 18, 2012

TimeWarpF100 said:
Very nice and thanks for sharing!

Will this work with the older JD2 benders? The one I have is 20+yrs old now.

Which reminds me its sitting out in the pouring rain . . . . 50% or our typical annual rainfall in just 2 days.

I like your Gantry crane too!

I had someone ask for plans and they had never made a single post! They wanted pretty much full plans so they could copy it completely. Never really had plans just made the cart up with what I had laying around. Did not have time to make up the plans just so the poster without a single post could have them . . . Great service with detailed plans. Thanks again!

The design is easily adapted to any "similar" style bender. I receive this question frequently regarding different benders so I came up with a graphic showing which dimensions to check. I'll attach it once photobucket is behaving. The only things that might change are the locations of the mounting lugs and the lower hydraulic mount. Simple changes.

dbtindustrial · Dec 18, 2012

TimeWarpF100 said:
Very nice and thanks for sharing!

Will this work with the older JD2 benders? The one I have is 20+yrs old now.

Here's the graphic I promised earlier.

Non-Model3JD2Benders_zpsa8329ea5.jpghttp:

dbtindustrial · Dec 18, 2012

I'll try again.

Bluegiller_killer · Jan 1, 2013

Did the HF upgrade on my JD2 about 6 months ago.. LOVE IT!!

neonnblack · Jan 1, 2013

Can you, or anyone post some pics of tubes rolled with the HF roller, i got one for free, havent used it yet. how bent have you guys got a tube?

Bluegiller_killer · Jan 2, 2013

I don't have a roller just the bender..

dbtindustrial · Apr 4, 2013

neonnblack said:
Can you, or anyone post some pics of tubes rolled with the HF roller, i got one for free, havent used it yet. how bent have you guys got a tube?

I'd check youtube. I usually wind up welding the finished tube into something and forget to take pics. There are a couple of demonstration videos that display some finished products made using the roller.

dbtindustrial · Apr 4, 2013

Bluegiller_killer said:
Did the HF upgrade on my JD2 about 6 months ago.. LOVE IT!!

Great to hear!

dbtindustrial · Apr 4, 2013

I wouldn't have guessed it, but I sell a lot of plans to Russia, Canada, Puerto Rico and Europe. I wonder if they buy JD2 or Protools benders over there, or if there is a Euro version I haven't heard of. Are there a lot of international users on Garage Journal, or is it mostly Americans?

T_Raven · Apr 27, 2013

I've been planning to buy a JD2 bender for a while and looking for one on ebay I found your plans. The funny thing is searching for other bender related stuff on the web brought me to your thread. It seems like any time I'm googling something shop related it brings me back here lol.

I just ordered a JD2 and picked up a roller at HF yesterday. I don't know what people are usually paying but it was $150. I bought a air operated ram last week. The inside track price right now is $70. Since I won't use the bender or my engine hoist every day, I don't want to buy two rams so I'll see if I can make it easily removable so I can use it in both.

Your set up is a dang good idea and I like your trailer jack/caster solution on your gantry crane. Keep the good ideas coming :thumbup:

astroracer · Jun 2, 2013

I ordered a set of plans a few weeks ago. Very nice and made building the stand almost a no-brainer. My stand cost me about $14 dollars to build. I used 2 x 2 x 1/8 wall tubing I bought as reclaimed from old shipping racks.
I finished the stand today. I cut down a Harbor Freight furniture dolly to make the stand mobile.
All put together and ready for a test bend.

Ran a piece of thinwall 1" through the bender for a test. The jack cycles out in pulses. It doesn't shoot out real fast. it is slow and very controllable. I was concerned about how the jack would work but now have no issues with it.
About a 30 degree bend here.

Getting upwards of 90 degrees now. I had to reset the drive pin in the die at about 60 degrees. Not any real difference then if I was using the stationary tool post other then I am taking it easy doing it... This is going to be great. Being able to use the tubing bender at any time, without having bolt and unbolt the tool post, is going to make the bender a much more versitile tool!

Just an overall with a piece of tubing bent to 90 degree's without breaking a sweat!

I also tried out the Harbor Freight Tubing Roller on a piece of conduit. It rolled it like it wasn't even there. I got a little heavy handed with the "down" roller and kinked it but that was my fault in going to fast.

buening · Jun 3, 2013

Has anyone added a degree wheel to these, similar to a camshaft degree wheel? I would think it would help measuring the angle, unless you guys have a different way to check this. Maybe the magnetic angle cubes are easier and more accurate, but would think the degree wheel would let you know when you are getting close and could get the finer measurement with the digital angle cube.

bullnerd · Jun 3, 2013

Check out SWAG offroad.Slick little degree setup.

dbtindustrial · Jun 5, 2013

buening said:
Has anyone added a degree wheel to these, similar to a camshaft degree wheel? I would think it would help measuring the angle, unless you guys have a different way to check this. Maybe the magnetic angle cubes are easier and more accurate, but would think the degree wheel would let you know when you are getting close and could get the finer measurement with the digital angle cube.

The degree ring would give you a rough idea, but setting it up might be a hassle. Depending on the size dies you are using and the location of the pins/holes the engagement point, or the location where the dies come into firm contact with the tubing, can vary. That's why the zero function on the angle cube is so handy. You could probably make a quick clamp setup to zero the degree wheel as well, but as I already have the angle cube...

dbtindustrial · Jun 5, 2013

Astroracer,

Sounds like a great setup! Got any pics?

astroracer · Jun 6, 2013

I loaded a few in my above post. I have a lot of the build process also. What would you like to see?

Jack Olsen · Jun 6, 2013

The pipe-threader power for the HF roll bender makes the thing MUCH more useful, in my opinion.

neonnblack said:
Can you, or anyone post some pics of tubes rolled with the HF roller, i got one for free, havent used it yet. how bent have you guys got a tube?

neonnblack, I posted pictures in the Welding Projects thread, so you've already seen the large pieces I made with a very gradual bend. But I also used the roll bender for my gate, which gives you some idea of how tight you can go.

Lots of curves in that picture. All thanks to that cheapo HF tool.

dbtindustrial · Jun 7, 2013

astroracer said:
I loaded a few in my above post. I have a lot of the build process also. What would you like to see?

Right you are! I was on someone else's computer and all the pics were blocked. That's a great build and good job on reducing the overall cost.

hayson · Jul 27, 2013

a nice upgrade the hf roller is made by swag off road well worth looking in to plus they make a tun of different dies for it

dbtindustrial · Sep 5, 2013

hayson said:
a nice upgrade the hf roller is made by swag off road well worth looking in to plus they make a tun of different dies for it

I agree. There is a link to Swag Offroad included in the plans.

StanBo · Dec 17, 2015

Shooting you an email now.

jfryjfry · Feb 1, 2021

I know this is a bit of a zombie thread but I can’t find any other threads with plans like this. Does anyone have the plans for this jd2 stand? I’m happy to buy them. Just got a used jd2 and like the style of this stand.

Air/hydraulic bender frame - JD2 tubing bender + HF tubing roller

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