Would this work?

[Duden89]

Found a tubing bender on ebay from Results for TUBING BENDER I'll probably use the same size tubing for my entire project. Is this a legitmate project? Seems like it to me but I'm a newb.

[bdkw1]

Those work OK. A little difficult to make repeatable bends and anything more than a 90* bend, but if your just using it for one buggy build, not all that bad.

[Duden89]

I'll probably just make the one buggy (going off to college before too long) and make it quality so it lasts. So right now I just need a tube bender that will work ok. Harbor Freight has a compact bender for 100 bucks and I can find dies for 170, but idk how well that would work either. Any ideas on what/how to get a good tubing bender for cheap?

[nutz4sand]

Depending on where your at a local race car shop will usually bend tubes for pretty reasonable if you know what you need and go to them with what you need done.

[mrmagoo560]

That bender from harbor frieght is for pipe and will not work properly on the tubing used on frames.Pipe and tubing have different measurements (ID and OD) so the dies are going to be different also it would be very diffucult to make accurate bend without making some kind of pointer and degree wheel.

[Duden89]

Well I found some dies on ebay that are compatible with that bender and the seller said they would work to bend tubing. It would be difficult to judge the degrees but I could always rig something up.

[K-fab]

That may be a decent unit - and while it would be pretty good at repeating bends if you let it run it's full course, as bdkw1 said, repeating less than 90 bends would take some work.

BUT, with a little perseverance, you can probably learn to do under 90 bends and repeat them.

Use something like a bent (to the angle desired) piece of TIG filler wire and hold it against the tube as it's being bent (making sure you keep your fingers clear of anything that might want to eat or remove them) until the filler wire's bend matches the bend you're putting in the tube.

Bang for the buck, that may not be a bad unit at all.

Harbor Freight bender works exceptionally well as a boat anchor, but not much else.

[Bullnerd]

If you plan on doing more than one build go with the JD-2,they made some improvements and they're still $295.

[nutz4sand]

One the little gray tube bender you just need a magnetic degree wheel to stick to the tube and repeatable bends should be pretty easy once you know the spring back (which you gotta figure out no matter what the bender pretty much anyways)

As long as the benders is on dead level ground you would only need one magnetic degree wheel. If unlevel you would need two or use the one to check the level tube then put the degree wheel on the end being bent and add or subtract the degrees there to the tube part being bent upward.

[bugbite]

speaking of benders do the jd-2 benders really lose much of their value after you buy them, in terms of resale value. just wondering cause I think I would like to do more then one build but really won't know until I get into the thick of it, and don't want to be stuck buying a pricy tool that I can't sell and recoup some of the costs, bugbite