justifying a tube bender....

[bigndn]

So my first project in my new shop will be building a tube flat bed, tube front bumper, and sliders for my 1985 Mini IF I can justify purchasing a tube bender. That's for starters, then I can go nuts on an exo if I want.

If I bought these items pre-bent, I'd be paying over $1000 and still have a bunch of welding to do on the flatbed and sliders.

I'm considering the Pro-tools 105 HD for $683. Does anyone have experience with mechanical tube benders? Are they worthwhile, or should I just get a hydro unit?

Discuss.

 

[John Smith]

IMHO a powered bender gives more control over a manual. Not sure what size tubing you are going to bend but 2" would suck with a manual bender. You can build a flat bed and sliders out of square tube just fine without a bender if you really want to save money...

 

[kulangot]

How handy are you? Build one:

Tubing Bender

200 Build Your Own Bender

200 Build Your Own Bender

or, buy this one:

PROTOOLS

Uses a hydraulic jack instead of hand power.

 

[D'Animal]

FC Fabrication only uses a manual bender.

 

[Gumby]

I've bent a lot of tube with a JD2 manual.

 

[latenitecustoms]

We use the JD2 all the time. Highly recommended.

 

[Trollhole]

Our club has one. 105 HD. I've only used it once. It's slow but unless your going to bend tube as a job I'd say stick with manual. Also it's good exercise.