Bending square tubing

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I look at some of the benders the members have built, and I am so jealous!  However, if I built one I've found the dies cost around $250 and you need a set of dies for each size and shape of material.  Seeing that I'm not in this commercially I'd have a hard time laughing off a selection of dies that would be used only occasionally.My neighbor mentioned he had build a bender for square tubing.  A year later  I had a job where that seemed like a handy thing, so I asked to borrow it.  He got a blank look in his eye, then said "Oh yes, I remember where it is."  Right out side the door of his shop he kicked around in a pile of metal and came up with this rusty device.  I took it home and tried it and darned if it didn't do a pretty good job.  This isn't a job for a piece you want to run a liquid through as it cuts down on the volume a lot, but for structural projects it works fine.  He had cobbled up a die for 1 1/4" tubing, so I made one for 1".  Both work great.  I have an old IBM logic cart made from square tubing and I think they used this same machine to make the legs.  The dimples look identical.You can see a bit of a sample of the bends just to the left of the hold bolt.  Thinner tubing is definitely easier than thick.  The handle bars and upper structure of the previously posted welding cart were bent with this rig.John Attached Images
Reply:I've seen trailer bed rails made of 2" square tubing with those kinds of bends. If it gets da jawb dun, yooz it! City of L.A. Structural; Manual & Semi-Automatic;"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore."Job 28:1,2Lincoln, Miller, Victor & ISV BibleDanny
Reply:Looks perfect for those occasional one off jobs.
Reply:Can you post a few more pictures of the bender. Thanks
Reply:I have bent quite a bit of flat bar and rectangular tubing with a simple frame welded to a chunk of I beam and a small hydraulic jack. Its slow but very easy to control. Bent a 4"x1/2" fb to form forefoot of boat this way. No heat and it came out perfect. Took awhile tho... 1"x3" tube for hand rails on the same boat...Airco 300 squarewaveMig welding center...Powcon sm300/LN 25Powcon sm200/PD lHypertherm PM 1100Miller AEAD 200LE W/LN25 FCand now another sm200 pd l combo.
Reply:Originally Posted by kknowlesCan you post a few more pictures of the bender. Thanks
Reply:Finally Picture #6 shows the bend.  I keep a piece of 1 1/4" tubing close by for a cheater handle if my 1" tubing is too short.You have to pull like heck.  John Attached Images
Reply:here a couple I have the one maded out of pipe is for 3/4" rhs and the red one is for 1" if you want some better pics let me know as i took these with my phone Creative metal Creative metal Facebook