Comments on this HF bender, please

[Phil S.]

I'm thinking of buying this bender. I want to be able to bend a 90* angle in 1 1/2" hollow tube with out kinking. It's from "Harbor Freight". Your comments please.

 

[Professur]

That's not a bender. It's a ring roller

 

[Stuart in MN]

Is that roller designed for pipe, or tubing? They have different outside diameters.

 

[fatrhino]

That's not a bender. It's a ring roller

Exactly. What you are looking for is one of these: http://www.jd2.com/shop/custom.aspx?recid=1

 

[Jack Olsen]

That tool is designed for long, consistent bends. I used it for making a covered parking spot for my car with 1/2" sqaure tubing:

I also used it for the curved piece on this workbench:

You can see I had to do some helper cuts with the heavier stock (and the wrong dies).

Still, it came out looking cool:

But a roll bender is definitely not something you'd want to use for 90° bends like you'd see in a roll cage. For that, you use one of HF's benchtop or freestanding benders, like this:

HF also makes one that attaches to a benchtop. In either case, you're going to have to find some dies that will work with it (since HF only has pieces for solid stock, I think).

Or watch for a used Hossfeld or a JD2 (probably the best bang for the buck) -- or make your own from plans (for even more bang). Lots of threads on this.

 

[nissan_crawler]

first, are you bending tube or pipe? HF has nothing that will do tube.

 

[PCO6]

These are on sale at Princess Auto (Canada) now for about $80. I've had one for several years and they work well.

 

[JMohn]

These are on sale at Princess Auto (Canada) now for about $80. I've had one for several years and they work well.

I think that's for solid rod, not tubing.

This is the cheapest tubing bender I have found, comes with die for one size tubing:
http://www.tjdieselperformance.com/servlet/the-124/tube-bender-tubing-bender/Detail

Never used it, no idea how well it works.

 

[Professur]

How about ..
http://www.pro-tools.com/200k.htm

 

[hedjhawg]

Try http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm

 

[royale5]

I am thinking about getting the HF roller to make some large radius bends for a custom chopper exhaust. Does anyone know if it will accept larger than 2" tubing? I would like the pipes to be 2" and make matching heat shields at 2-1/4".

 

[klhitman]

Exactly. What you are looking for is one of these: http://www.jd2.com/shop/custom.aspx?recid=1

have one of these at work for bending copper pipe but we have used for many more stuff like handles for carts and stuff of that sort. with the tooling choices they have you cant beat it. i just wish i had the hydraulic unit for it. bending pipe by hand all day long is a little bit of a pain.

 

[PCO6]

I think that's for solid rod, not tubing.

This is the cheapest tubing bender I have found, comes with die for one size tubing:
http://www.tjdieselperformance.com/servlet/the-124/tube-bender-tubing-bender/Detail

Never used it, no idea how well it works.

Late response to this but I was commenting on Jack's post to simply say that they were on sale. These units will do round stock up to 5/8" but are better for flat stock - 2" wide up to 5/16". I wouldn't try tubing with it though unless you can come up with some different kind of dies.