tube bender cart

[Boost Creep]

i recently purchased a tube bender from jd2. its the model 32 hydraulic. its 3/4" plate and has 3/4" mounting bolts. pretty heavy

now i needed something to mount it to. this is my first big welding project btw. just started learning to weld a month or so ago using a miller 211. i've been looking around at threads of other bender carts and designs and finally found a style i liked. someone modified an engine stand to hold their bender. i stared at my stand for a bit and decided i didn't want to give up my engine stand to have a bender stand. so i decided to start from scratch.

here is the start of my frame. its 2" .120 square tubing. i copied the measurements of my engine stand to use on this. everything ended up being 28" cuts. i did change slightly from the engine stand design and went with this H shaped set up compared to the T shape of the engine stand so i can have a bit more stability. so i got this base welded together. took some 2" angle and welded it on to the center section for a mounting base for the pump.

where the pump sits.

next up was to make some feet to be able to bolt the wheels to. i used some 3/16" 2" strips to do this since the casters have a 4"x4" flange. tacked the 2" strips together, marked and drilled my holes and then welded those on.

next up i took two pieces of tube and welded them together for a 2x4 upright. took a 6"x6" square of 1/4 plate and drilled my mounting holes for the bender and welded that to one end of the upright and then welded the upright on. following along with using engine stand dimensions the upright is the same 28" as everything else. so now all that was done it was to this point with the frame of the bender mounted up for a test fit

next up was some cord management. theres a power cord and a cord for the pump controller to take care of that i didn't want dangling all over when i'm pushing this around when not in use. i bent up a couple pieces of 1/8 1" flat and drilled some holes in the middle so i could practice a rosette weld.

and welded these on each side

next up i capped off all the open ends of the legs with some 2" 1/8 flat. and smoothed out all the welds on that. forgot pics of that. this brings us up to speed on where i'm at right now. a couple gussets just showed up so i'll go get those on today and get it painted up. i don't think i'll actually need them but i got some custom laser cut ones just for decoration cause i think they look cool. hopefully tomorrow i can get everything else bolted on

 

[McLean]

Looks good! Is that the motor/pump package from JD2?

Maybe it's not final, but why is the bender frame not oriented with the weight over the chassis? (90 deg cw from pic)

 

[Boost Creep]

yes, this is the electric pump you get from them

the pump is pretty heavy and i'm anticipating it will be enough counterbalance for it. if not i can make some changes later. i was going to go with an upright on each side of the pump and connect at the top with the bender directly over the pump but i wanted as little possible obstructions for any bent tube as possible.

 

[srmofo]

yes, this is the electric pump you get from them

the pump is pretty heavy and i'm anticipating it will be enough counterbalance for it. if not i can make some changes later. i was going to go with an upright on each side of the pump and connect at the top with the bender directly over the pump but i wanted as little possible obstructions for any bent tube as possible.

I think you are going to run into issues when you start putting long lengths of tube in it. There is a reason these are usually bolted to the floor. Like you said though you can always change it later by just taking the casters off and putting a few anchors in your floor.

Out of curiosity what do you plan to build? Ive had my eye on that bender for a while but I need to get through college before I start buying equipment again.

I know its obviously something for your buggy but what.

 

[MoonRise]

Interesting.

A couple of comments, in no particular order.

Don't start or stop a weld on a 'corner', like the 'corners' of the square tubing you are using. See Post #1, picture #3. Do the start/stop past the corner and 'wrap' around the corner to get a smoother tie-in. Probably not too critical on this task/job, but a good habit to get into of not leaving starts/stops right on the corners. (because there are enough of stress/strength concerns going on with corners to begin with, you really don't want to add any more negative effects by leaving or making an even higher stress concentration factor from a weld start/stop right there on the tube corner.)

Next, although it looks like you did grind (or try to grind) off some of the mill scale from the tubing before you did the welds, it also looks like there were a bunch of welds done without grinding off the mill scale in the weld area. Post #1, pictures #4 and #5.

I see a stand/table for the porta-band (on my To-Do list).

What do you think of the HF welding table so far?

 

[Boost Creep]

I think you are going to run into issues when you start putting long lengths of tube in it. There is a reason these are usually bolted to the floor. Like you said though you can always change it later by just taking the casters off and putting a few anchors in your floor.

Out of curiosity what do you plan to build? Ive had my eye on that bender for a while but I need to get through college before I start buying equipment again.

I know its obviously something for your buggy but what.

most of the designs i've seen bolted to the floor are with manual benders and they're bolted down because you have to physically pull a bar to get the tube bent with requires a solid mount so it won't move. we'll see though. if i have to change my design its no big deal.

plans in my head are an exo cage for my cherokee and i got a baja bug shell sitting around that will need some stuff. also been kinda inspired by some of the custom furniture builds i've seen here. looks like fun to try

Interesting.

A couple of comments, in no particular order.

Don't start or stop a weld on a 'corner', like the 'corners' of the square tubing you are using. See Post #1, picture #3. Do the start/stop past the corner and 'wrap' around the corner to get a smoother tie-in. Probably not too critical on this task/job, but a good habit to get into of not leaving starts/stops right on the corners. (because there are enough of stress/strength concerns going on with corners to begin with, you really don't want to add any more negative effects by leaving or making an even higher stress concentration factor from a weld start/stop right there on the tube corner.)

Next, although it looks like you did grind (or try to grind) off some of the mill scale from the tubing before you did the welds, it also looks like there were a bunch of welds done without grinding off the mill scale in the weld area. Post #1, pictures #4 and #5.

I see a stand/table for the porta-band (on my To-Do list).

What do you think of the HF welding table so far?

thanks for the tip about corners. i'll keep that in mind.

in terms of the mill scale, a lot of what i've read so far says that its not really necessary with mig in a situation like this. i mostly did it both ways to see in person what the differences would feel/look like. i have no issues cleaning it off and will most likely do it for everything in the future. a bit about mill scale from the book that i'm basing this from: Welding, principles and applications:

like i said though, i'm just learning so i'm always open to constructive criticism and advise

 

[151marker]

I see no problem with it being mobile on wheels. I put mine on post welded to a 15" car wheel. with a 20 ft pipe it is a little tippy, Your's should be fine. I do suggest building an adjustable stand with a roller to support the end of the pipe you'll be bending. Makes it much easier when bending with on person.

 

[McLean]

I agree with you. Keep it on casters. Keeping it balanced (safe!) and mobile does not need to be a compromise.

I understand your concern with obstructions on complex bends (pretty rare, but cant blame ya for designing for worst case). have you considered drilling holes for multiple configurations so that you can mount it in the most stable config as primary, but reindex the frame if needed for clearance? maybe building something similar to the plate that SWAG offers:

 

[dv8customs]

Mine is set up vertically with the HF air/hydraulic ram. It gets a little tipsy if I am doing the first couple of bends on a 10' piece or longer. I have a 5 gallon bucket full of concrete that I keep on there for a counterweight. It does the job just fine.

 

[doojus]

Not removing millscale is fine on mig. Good tip on the corner stopping though.

 

[MoonRise]

re: millscale

Although some welding processes can 'tolerate' certain amounts of non-metal, you ALWAYS get a better weld if you are welding clean bright shiny metal.

Flux/slag processes (SMAW, or in a shop SAW) can often tolerate the most 'crud', GMAW with an S6 wire can tolerate less, and GTAW can tolerate the least (almost none).

But you ALWAYS will get a better weld if the metal you are trying to weld is actual clean shiny metal.

Not rust or mill scale, not paint or grease or oil or adhesive residue, not water, not anything except for clean bright shiny metal.

Think about it. You (generic you, not a specific you) are trying to weld metal. Why do you want something that is NOT metal in there?

IMNSHO, best practice is to always do the welding on clean bright shiny metal.

(yes, some SMAW electrodes can 'tolerate' a rather large amount of not-metal and still let you end up with OK welds.)

 

[mike13u]

The stand is looking good.
The problem isnt that the mill scale cant be left on during certain jobs, its just that it shouldn't. Get in the habit of prepping the steel properly and learning methods and tools to help you remove the scale. Removing it all the time is going to help stabilize your arc, it will eliminate possible contamination, and it will improve the appearance of your welds. And, doing things like this will make you a better welder. Period.
Think of a machinist that positions a piece of stock in his lathe...sure he could 'eyeball' that the cutting tool is in the center of the stock. For certain applications that may be just fine. But, a good machinist gets into the habit of doing everything with precision. It makes him a better machinist.

 

[Boost Creep]

i have a few options for an easy fix if it does get tippy. one, it would be easy to drill a few more holes on my mounting plate and rotate the bender and see how that goes. second, i can get some round tube and make some short uprights on the opposite side of the bender above the casters and drop a few plate weights on it. we'll see when i cross that road

gussets are on

all painted up with rustoleum hammered black. ready to assemble tomorrow

 

[Boost Creep]

What do you think of the HF welding table so far?

forgot to answer this earlier. it doesn't seem bad for the price. good if you have a small shop since you can fold it up out of the way. i bought it for something to get started on until i can build a bigger table. it will still be handy to have around if i want to take my welder anywhere and work offsite. i think this project is about the biggest thing i'd want to make on it size and weight wise. its not tippy but the top flexes or twists slightly with it up there depending on how i move it around. i couldn't picture the strong hand version being that much better to be worth so much more money. overall i'm happy with it

 

[TauntDevil]

Looks good. Loving the look of the gussets.

Also, if you have any extra of the square tubing. Maybe add one more arm out for the weight when doing large tubing. The one wheel should be enough to keep the thing from tipping over. The one my neighbor has is centered instead of at the end.

 

[Boost Creep]

all done.

 

[DarkMonohue]

That looks great! Nice job.

Sure wish we'd have had power assist on the roll cage we built last year.

 

[dv8customs]

Looks great, now put it to work

 

[raffaelli]

Nice!

 

[NUTTSGT]

Looks like a slick set up but it apeears to be vandalized already.

 

[Boost Creep]

Looks like a slick set up but it apeears to be vandalized already.

yeah, that seems to happen around my shop a lot. lol. i'm a fan of graffiti but not a fan of doing it to other peoples property. also how i mark my stuff as mine