Are Ugly Bends Dangerous?

[Junior]

I am aware of a guy who has Racing dreams and limited budget. He is currently building what he would like to become a Race Truck. When I got a look at the project recently it was quite obvious that a very low quality bender was being used due to the crimp type indentations apparent in most all of the bends. Will these crimps (for lack of a better term) effect the strength of the cage?

Please refrain from bashing the guy, if you knew his story you would understand.

Junior

[AaronDixon]

if the pipe is creased, it will certainly fail. Its like the 'crumple' zones in a cars frame. They are designed to bend at that point. This cage will do the same thing, the tube has lost its structural properties.

Aaron

[matt_helton]

what kinda bender are we talking about here?? like a exhaust tubing bender??

[Bryan_D]

Sure sounds like an exhaust bender. If so they should stop the project and start over. http://www.race-dezert.com/vb3/attachments/old/images/graemlins/frown.gif

[Junior]

It appears to be a unit much like in the attachment. A Pipe Bender. Thanks for the info. I will speak to him about either having the bends done for him or getting a hold of quality equipment.

Junior

[Junior]

Man, I have no idea what happened. Here is the pic intended.

Junior

[JrSyko]

Don't worry about it, I have a new background! I like it, kinda different

[matt_helton]

ohh, the harbor freight pipe bender. i love mine. works great.

but you have to modify it a bit to work well. and you MUST use .120 wall tubing. any thinner will kink. if you "open" up the dies a bit with a small sander/ grinder the tubing fits in real nice and wont kink or crease.

i can bend a perfect 90deg. bend with 1", 1.25", and 1.5" tubing with out kinking, wrinkling or creasing the tubing. i have built 2 ENTIRE trucks with this bender and have rolled them both quite hard and had NO problems with the tube work giving way. cage design plays the important role there. ive also built countless bumpers, shock mounts and other misc. stuff with my 70 dollar pipe bender. talk all the crap you like cus its a free country! http://www.race-dezert.com/vb3/attachments/old/images/graemlins/shocked.gif i will continue to use mine for a long time to come.

low budget fab. works for me! oh yeah, and i love mild steel. http://www.race-dezert.com/vb3/attachments/old/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[Bryan_D]

Do those really work that well? I was gonna buy one to build a cage for a golfcart? What else can you do to make it a better piece?

[01Baja4x4]

I have heard of guys that use these benders successfully by packing the tube full of sand and sealling both ends before they start to bend. The sand keeps the tube from bunching.

-Tim

[hxckidd]

the real secret is to use the 1" die with the 1.5" tube. I think it works fine for someone learning how to build bumpers so they dont have to spend 600 bucks

[UndercoverFab]

"I have heard of guys that use these benders successfully by packing the tube full of sand and sealling both ends before they start to bend. The sand keeps the tube from bunching."

if you do that the sand has to be extremely dry or when you weld on it the moisture will turn to steam and bad things will usually happen, but yes thats a way to not kink tubing with a crappy bender, i used to know an old school drag car builder who`d use barells large pipes and any other objets he could find to bend tubing with.

[ACID_RAIN28]

I started out using a one that I had converted. And lots of people I knew used them before me. the 1.5" is the only one that works the cleanest without having to do a lot of mods, and you can bend thinner wall tubing, you need to get a piece of 1.5" schedual 80 pipe, hard to find, and bend it to the die, tack it in the die, then cut it in half, and bang! a sleeved die that fits 1.5" tubing, as for the rollers if you put some formed plate on them, increasing the surface area, no more creasing, just a lot of greasing. You can do this also with the single shot benders, most guys I know only have like 2 or 3 of the dies, but have reducers for all the sizes.

[curt]

Aside from all the obvious "is your life worth it" statements, the cage is usually the main anchoring point, the one thing you can't easily redo at a later date. Down the road you may use it to be one side of an anchor for a shock mounting applications (very high stress) or run backwards to support tires, jacks, bedsides etc..so this will be the beginning of your main point of construction. Also something to keep in mind, truck frames under high stress flex a whole bunch and the cage can take some pretty good abuse even without crashing it.

It's really not worth the cost savings not to get a decent bender like a JD2 or others to do a project like this. Find someone near you and borrow one (most of us that have them, don't use them for a couple of months at a time) Just my .02...Curt

[Greg]

Is it me or should the question be "will these tubes bend where there is already a bend?".

[Josh_K]

I have a jd2 juice bender and I have about 2,500 in it with all the dies and I love it. But in all honest if you can a $99.00 pipe bender to do the job as Acid Rain28 describes, I don't see an issue with it.

The one thing I have noticed when this is done is that the bends are squeezed a little more that a mandrel bender does. An example of this is if a mandrel benders squeezes a 1.5 tube down to 1.430", a pipe dender might squeeze it to 1.365 in the bend area. But if it doesn't kink it and it's on a home made truck, who cares. I say go for it!

But if you got the money for the right tool, it is better.

Josh

[BIG_FAT_LOSER]

Benders? HAH, use as much straight tube as possible

[ntsqd]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Benders? HAH, use as much straight tube as possible

[/ QUOTE ]

Been working with those ACE boys, have you ?