Tubing Dies

[Puggapower]

I am going to drop some coin on a set of 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" dies from Pro Tools and don't know what radi I should get from a mini buggy? [smilie=banghead.gif]

[Kawabuggy]

Dude, I won't pretend to know how best to decide which radius you need to get. I guess if I were in your shoes, I would start by looking at your plans to determine how tight the tighest corner in all of the plans is required, and then make the decision on the radius from there.

Otherwise, hopefully someone smarter than me (that would be anyone else on this site) will respond and give you better advise/direction.

Congrats on your decision to bend your own! I just purchased plans to make my own bender and will be purchasing a die set today!

Do you think we can get a discount if we purchase together? I was planning on calling Pro-Tools today..

I will start a new thread on this subject...

[renegadespec1]

Puggapower,
That's an interesting name, for 1 1/4" round I use a 3.5" die for drivers pod bends...makes for nice tight looking bends...For front hoops engine bay hoops etc. I use the 4.5" die...They look swoopy er (more sleek) os for square tube stuff I only use the 3.5" die... I hope that helps cuz dies are spendy...

[masterfabr]

I think kawa got it right.Study your plans and try to determine what centerline radius is used on the important bends for the correct look or contact the plans provider on what they used for drawing the plans. fabr

[renegadespec1]

Master is right ...I forgot I design my own around the dies.... study your blueprints and use common sence when ordering dies..

[KWiKSand]

I have a 4.5" radius die and have been happy with it. * It will do down to .058 wall where the 4" radius will only do down to .065. * *Even though I don't plan on using .058 it is nice to know I could if I wanted.

I am really wishing I had a die for smaller stuff though. *

Anyone ever tried to bend some .120 wall tubing and then cutting it in half along the bend line and using it in the die with the next size smaller tubing? *I have been thinking about trying it, but I really want to go down 2 sizes... from 1.25 to .75

[bdkw1]

Any rules that I have seen say a minimum bend radius of 3X the tube diameter. Theres a good reason for this.

[renegadespec1]

[quote="KWiKSand";p="24885"]I have a 4.5" radius die and have been happy with it. * It will do down to .058 wall where the 4" radius will only do down to .065. * *Even though I don't plan on using .058 it is nice to know I could if I wanted.

I am really wishing I had a die for smaller stuff though. *

Anyone ever tried to bend some .120 wall tubing and then cutting it in half along the bend line and using it in the die with the next size smaller tubing? *I have been thinking about trying it, but I really want to go down 2 sizes... from 1.25 to .75[/quote
Wouldn't you have to have some mounted in the shoe as well?
Never tried it but seems to be possible

[KWiKSand]

Yes, I would think so. *The hard part would be getting the half in the shoe to stay put I would think. *You might have to peen over the ends or weld tabs on the ends to keep it located.

I did bend some .875 tube in my 1.25 die and it did flatten just slightly, but for non structural things it wasn't bad looking..... ie handle grips

[renegadespec1]

I agree but forgot to mention that