homemade bender dies

admin

In the spirit of buiding everything cheesy and cheap, how difficult is it to machine my own bender die for 1 1/2 inch Alum  tubes , I have a 9 inch south bend lathe and I'm going to need 4x 90 deg bends for a boat frame, I'd like to do it with minimum sweep of the curve.Its for a one off project that will only see one use then be junked.I was thinking of trying the 12 ton HF bender but hear they ought to be called Tube kinkers. Can I get 90 degs from the HF unit?Is it possible to buy 90 deg pre-bent tube ?If so, that would probably solve it for me, the other bends I need are very gentle and I can cobble something up for that.Last edited by jonesg; 01-31-2010 at 01:51 PM.
Reply:For a bending die your lathe is probably too small.  I  made some steel pnes for my ring roller wihich are smaller those on my bending dies.  The die will be larger than the radius/diameter desired since it is usually center line.You need a radius tool.  Not too difficult to make the tool or die.
Reply:Hi Not sure what size of arc you waht but with a ring roller you are able to make about any size. You can make your own dies for rolling with the lathe you have but you will need aradius cutter to make them.  and they are easy to make also.have funTom Attached Images
Reply:I like that Tom, Question is which came first the Hand wheel or the ring roller
Reply:I have no clue what the proper terminology is in machining things because I have never done any machining, but somewhere on this forum or on "hotrodders" there's a guy who made his own dies on a lathe, I do believe it was for a roller but you could do the same for a tube bending die if your lathe was big enough... he had kinda what looked like a boring bar on his tool post with the cutter in the bar. the cutter extends out of the bar the radius of the die he was making, the bar would rotate the cutter to make a perfect radius on his work piece. I know I'm fu@#ing up explaining this so maybe someone smarter than myself can explain it if you don't understand me."Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal"   -Henry Ford
Reply:theres videos on youtube that shows one person maken a jig to turn out dies just search for homemade tube dies
Reply:Originally Posted by eyeball engineerI have no clue what the proper terminology is in machining things because I have never done any machining, but somewhere on this forum or on "hotrodders" there's a guy who made his own dies on a lathe, I do believe it was for a roller but you could do the same for a tube bending die if your lathe was big enough... he had kinda what looked like a boring bar on his tool post with the cutter in the bar. the cutter extends out of the bar the radius of the die he was making, the bar would rotate the cutter to make a perfect radius on his work piece. I know I'm fu@#ing up explaining this so maybe someone smarter than myself can explain it if you don't understand me.
Reply:For one time 4 bends a muffler shop may be the cheapest.Lincoln SA200, HH135, Lencospot, HF80 Inverter, Rockwell 11x35 lathe, HF drill mill, Kama 554 tractor w/ FEL & BH, Belarus 250AS, lot's of Chinese tools
Reply:I saw that ring bender at HF, it might be better suited for making a car port frame.
Reply:Try any of the racing fab shops in your area.  A JD2 bender or similar should be able to make those bends, and it will probably cost you less than the materials to make a die will.
Reply:Here ya go: page 7http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=25351&page=7and here:http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...+bender&page=2Last edited by jackalope; 02-04-2010 at 03:48 PM.http://jackalopefab.com/MM210Synchrowave 200DXMiller XMT350 w/60series feederMiller Bobcat 250 with SGA 100 and spoolgunHTP PlasmaFull Machine shop with everything