lilscorpion
Well-known member
I've used one of these numbers before on a CNC tubing bender and they were very well.
It's basically a large positioner/indexing head that has a large enough thru-hole for tubing. The one shown can handle up to 2.5-inch I believe. My bender can bend up to 2-inch so there's no need for the thru-hole needs to be any bigger than that...so maybe 2.125 ID. Obviously a machinery dividing head/indexing head with a chuck that large would cost big coin so I'd like to see if it's viable to build one on the cheap(er). The setup you see above is about $4k (yeah, big time) but that includes the v-roller bearings, extruded rail, brackets to attach it to the bender, and a few other things (position stops, etc). I have an 8-inch Bison chuck with a 2.125-inch thru-hole on my lathe that cost about $800 or I could just use it when I'm bending and replace it on the lathe when I'm done. I could build whatever type of adapter I need to adapt if I can find the gearbox. Ideally the box wouldn't have some massive reduction as tube work typically is in 0 - 360 degrees. Too much reduction would a thousand rotations of a hand wheel just to get a 90-degree rotation of tubing. I have digital angle finders and a mess of other angle finding indicators so I don't need advice on how to figure out rotations on the cheap. This build is about being able to bend compound symmetrically accurate pieces quickly and to a level of accuracy that tends to elude lower end benders. I have the bender setup to do it without issue, it's the rotations that become complex when there are 5 bends per joint and a left and a right. Anyway, if anyone knows where to find such a gearbox as shown in the pic above, I'd appreciate the help. Hell, if you have a better idea of how to build such a unit without the gearbox, I'm all ears. Given what's included in the $4k of unit pictured above, I'd assume that the reduction unit shown in the picture costs around $300 - $600 but that's just a guess. I've looked at places like SurplusCenter.com and a variety of others like it but I must not be looking the right place. Thanks!
It's basically a large positioner/indexing head that has a large enough thru-hole for tubing. The one shown can handle up to 2.5-inch I believe. My bender can bend up to 2-inch so there's no need for the thru-hole needs to be any bigger than that...so maybe 2.125 ID. Obviously a machinery dividing head/indexing head with a chuck that large would cost big coin so I'd like to see if it's viable to build one on the cheap(er). The setup you see above is about $4k (yeah, big time) but that includes the v-roller bearings, extruded rail, brackets to attach it to the bender, and a few other things (position stops, etc). I have an 8-inch Bison chuck with a 2.125-inch thru-hole on my lathe that cost about $800 or I could just use it when I'm bending and replace it on the lathe when I'm done. I could build whatever type of adapter I need to adapt if I can find the gearbox. Ideally the box wouldn't have some massive reduction as tube work typically is in 0 - 360 degrees. Too much reduction would a thousand rotations of a hand wheel just to get a 90-degree rotation of tubing. I have digital angle finders and a mess of other angle finding indicators so I don't need advice on how to figure out rotations on the cheap. This build is about being able to bend compound symmetrically accurate pieces quickly and to a level of accuracy that tends to elude lower end benders. I have the bender setup to do it without issue, it's the rotations that become complex when there are 5 bends per joint and a left and a right. Anyway, if anyone knows where to find such a gearbox as shown in the pic above, I'd appreciate the help. Hell, if you have a better idea of how to build such a unit without the gearbox, I'm all ears. Given what's included in the $4k of unit pictured above, I'd assume that the reduction unit shown in the picture costs around $300 - $600 but that's just a guess. I've looked at places like SurplusCenter.com and a variety of others like it but I must not be looking the right place. Thanks!