tube benders....which one

[yotawheeler]

alright so...iv been on the fence as to wether or not i need/want to buy a tube bender and iv finally decided to pull the trigger on one....i was going to go with the JD2 bender but came across a pro tools bender which looks like a fairly good bender as well....better package price though. i dont want to buy a lesser tool over 50 or $100 but at the same time....dont want to pay just for a name ect. anyways...here are the sites for each bender:

JD Squared i am looking at the model 3
Pipe Bending Machine, Tube Benders, Square Tubing Bender

so....pretty much, im 19, starting to get a bit of a shop going, have welder, band saw, drill press ect for tools. would be used mostly for fabbing up 4x4 stuff at first i think. sliders, cages and the like and maybe using it to do some other jobs as i can get them.

any thoughts/opinions? im actually kind of leaning towards the pro tools one...bit over my budget but it would allow me to bend as soon as i can afford the tube to put through it...where for a little bit less money i would have to make a stand ect for the JD2 one (there is no way im gunna pay $100+ on that stand they are selling when i can make my own with steel from the scrap yard)

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

I have the JD2 and would buy the pro-tools if I had to do it again. The arms on the pro-tools are a bit beefier, which has proven to be an issue with the JD2 if you (ab)use it to bend heavy wall 2" tubing.

 

[gotmud]

I used the Pro-Tools 105 to bend my sliders. It worked fine, although it required two people to bend the .188 wall. I noticed some of the pins on the bender bent when we put everything away.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

I used a friends pro-tool to make my front bumper - he modified it by putting a hydraulic cylinder on it. It worked well, he uses it at his welding shop for motorcycle frames etc. Here's a pic of my bumper. I'm going to use it for my roll cage, sliders and rear bumper this winter.

 

[yotawheeler]

awl_teq: nice bumper...a bit off topic but would u mind posting some pics of how your hoop is tied in? i would like to tie my tube fenders/sliders into a front hoop and havnt figured out how to mount everything and i just dont like the idea of welding to a frame when i dont have to. makes everything perminent and with the way my truck is....its apart prolly at least once a year for upgrades/messing around.

back on topic: i was looking at making this bender AH_tubebender but after thinking about it....i cant really see it costing much less that 300 (aprox cost of just a bender) once you factor in the hydro ram and steel...plus time which always seems to be in short supply

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Yotawheeler - yeah I'll get you some pics when I get home. If you look at the pic above you can see I used a large 1/4" thick gusset on top of the frame rail and have three 1/2" holes per side to bolt it on. Two of the three holes are in front of the hoop and are the stock recovery hook mounting holes - the third is behind the hoop. The gusset goes past the point where the frame begins to arc upwards - so the gusset has a slight kink in it to follow the frame. There is also a piece of 1/4" plate on the outside of the frame rail with two more bolts. It is welded to the top gusset and to the back of the main bumper tube. The drivers side top gusset will have to be notched for the yet to be installed power steering box - that's why it isn't plated or painted yet. Like you I am planning to tie a fender guard to the main hoop and then on to sliders. I am going to make it come off the main hoop a couple of inches and then have a flange with two or three bolts (maybe 3/8" Dia) so that it is removable and repairable.

So there are ten grade 8 half inch bolts holding it on and the material used in the bumper is as thick or thicker than the frame - I figure it's plenty strong e-nuff. The bumper is just sitting on my frame at the moment with two hand tight bolts so I can pop it off and take a bunch of pics for ya. I'll post them in a new album in my user profile so I don't hijack this thread tooooo much.


End Hijack

 

[fj40forlife]

got my self a jd2 with air/hyd ram on it. and dies to. arould 600 for bender and die. plus hf ram and i made the stand.

 

[Tools R Us]

If you want a air/hyd one, building it is a good option. This type doesn't need to be bolted down, takes much less room for long tube bends, etc and it sounds like you have the equipment to get it done.

Plans;
Tube_Bender

Thread with tons of info;
homebuilt tubing bender - Pirate4x4.Com Bulletin Board

 

[Toyrod]

I bought the JD2 and 1 3/4 inch dies. I went with the manual bender because I only use it for myself. It takes some effort to bend a 90 but there are only 6 in my cage with some slight bends in the spreader bars. When I'm done, I unbolt the stand and stick the bender in the corner. For the money and amount of bending that I do for my own projects, it would have made more sense to buy a cage kit from metaltech or some other shop that can bend to specs. Keep in mind that tubing is very expensive. I bought 100 foot of 1 3/4 dom and got a "deal" at $6.50 a foot several months ago. I have also bent HREW that I got for around $3.00 per foot. The bends are not as nice as on the DOM. I have bent some other misc. stuff and am happy with the predictability of the bends and the quality of the bender.