I saw this advertised on thesamba.com in the for sale section. Anyone know anything about it? Hoping to buy a bender and start on a new rail sometime this year.

http://www.tjdieselperformance.com/serv ... der/Detail

It looks well built and I like that it bends the tube vertically or up instead of the normal horizontal. If you have tall ceilings I think its easier to bend this way. I personally use a modified tube tek bender that is reasonably cheap also but works well for me. If it were me I would rather the bender be higher off the ground. Here is a link to tube tek just for more options. Note I converted mine to a vertical bender and added an air over hydraulic ram to make life easier. www.tubetek.net

I like that. I didn't like the look of the dies for the one i posted. This looks more like a pro tools or JD2 bender. Did you use the Harbor freight air ram? I have heard alot of good things about them on Pirate4x4.com

Something else I noticed is you can't see the follower die. This leads me to believe its really short. The longer the follower is the smoother the outside of the bend usually is. Check pricing on dies, that is where the cost is. I would rather a 4" or 5" CLR die more than a 7". On a buggy most of the bends are rather tight and there is not usually a need for long swooping bends. I built my frame with a 1.5" die, 4.5" radius bend and 240 degrees capable. The 240 degree dies allow a really tight bend, you can make u shapes if you want. I also had a 1" die, 3" radius bend and 240 degree capable die and follower for the smaller pieces like the bumper. To get tight bends on shock towers or anything tighter than 90 degrees you will need a tighter die than the one they show. You will need to figure out what your frame design requires and start based off of that. It sucks to get a bender and start on your own custom frame just to find out you have to alter the plans to match your bender. All said and done with shipping I had about $500 in my bender,two dies and two followers. I then added an old stand and the air over hydraulic ram. The cheapest way is to call beeline and have one built, but what fun is that!

Ya I used a ram off of ebay that is just like the Harbor Freight ram. It really works well, although a little slow. I can get some pictures posted of mine with the ram.

Thanks for all the info. Pictures would be great. I was planning on going with the 240 dia even if i don't plan on needing it. I am not building my own frame instead im probably going to go with a stalker frame but will need the bender for any modifications and add ons. I have seen the pictures of your frame that you built and its amazing. I don't think i want to try that just yet.

chances are if that says diesel on it it is for exhaust tubing, which would probably mean it is short. you guys may have already established this and ic ould be completely off, just thought id mention it.

It says not for thin exhaust tubing. Also if it were for diesel exhaust it would need to bend 4"+ dia. tubing and it only goes up to 1 3/4"

I would say if not your real old say like 40 or somthing go ahead an buy a jd2 or pro tools. Life is alot nicer with good tool that you can do what ever you want instead of just screwwing up tube. If your real old you may not live long enough to get a decent return on the $ If you dont get a good one up front you will be old an broke do to frustation dealing with junk tools an rebuying good ones when junk lets you down kinda like a dodge truck

I've used a couple of benders in that style backwoods posted and do not like them. I bought a protools 105hd myself. The problem I've run into on the upright benders is the jack doesn't have a long enough stroke to make a 90 without stopping, letting pressure off, turning the adjustment screw in the end of the jack farther out, taking the slack back up while trying to make sure the tube does slip around, and finally continuing the bend. That gets really old really quick. If you are space limited inside you could sink a 2 in receiver in a concrete plug outside and then mount the bender to the part a trailer ball would normally be mounted to. That way it would be anchored well but you wouldn't leave it outside in the weather. Of course you could also make it hook up to a receiver hitch on a vehicle. Another good way would be to build a bender cart and mount it to that with it converted to hydraulic. Thats what I plan to do ultimately but I've got a few other projects in front of that. If your going to get a verticle hydraulic hand pump style I'd get one of these http://www.pro-tools.com/200.htm You know you can get a large selection of dies. These also have a 20 ton jack versus the 8 tons found on all the other uprights I've seen. The 20 ton should have a bit more travel so you don't have to do the whole screw out the slack adjuster mid bend.

John

[quote='backwoods']It says not for thin exhaust tubing. Also if it were for diesel exhaust it would need to bend 4"+ dia. tubing and it only goes up to 1 3/4"[/quote]

ah i see, guess i shouldn't just talk out of my ass.

Here are a couple pics of my Tube Tek bender. It will pretty much bend a 90 in one pass without moving the pin. On this bender when the stroke of the hydraulic cylinder is maxed out you release the pressure, remove the pin that rotates the die and move it back to the next hole and start bending again. A re-pin takes less than 20 seconds. This is basically a knock off of pro-tools and works well in my opinion. It came with the ratcheting piece and handle stub so you can use it as a hand bender also. I have never used it without the ram. I can bend a 90 in maybe a minute or minute and a half. I don't really care how fast it is my brain can't keep up with it now! The arms and dies are drilled for a vast amount of die combinations and sizes.

Flat together ready to insert tube. This is the 1" die and follower.


With the ram extended out as if it were bending.


This is the back of the bender where I hang the extra 1.5" die and follower. I was bending the light bar for the roof you can see it in the back. Still a long way to go!

[quote='JeffClay'][quote='backwoods']It says not for thin exhaust tubing. Also if it were for diesel exhaust it would need to bend 4"+ dia. tubing and it only goes up to 1 3/4"[/quote]

ah i see, guess i shouldn't just talk out of my ass.[/quote]

Jeff I really admire you for admitting that you were talking out of your ass. Most people do it. But a very few will admit it.
Dean

_________________
It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit.-
Harry S. Truman

how much you got in that setup dies and all

[quote='D. Marks'][quote='JeffClay'][quote='backwoods']It says not for thin exhaust tubing. Also if it were for diesel exhaust it would need to bend 4"+ dia. tubing and it only goes up to 1 3/4"[/quote]

ah i see, guess i shouldn't just talk out of my ass.[/quote]

Jeff I really admire you for admitting that you were talking out of your ass. Most people do it. But a very few will admit it.
Dean[/quote]

why thank you

Sharpshooter, about $500. I wouldn't be surprised if the prices haven't gone up.