Homemade pipe bender

[daaboots]

A few people have asked for pictures of my homemade pipe bender, so here they are - finally!

I made the shoe by hand on a lathe. The grove isn't a perfect half circle, but it's close enough for me.























Nothing too fancy... does the job.

[nutz4sand]

Completely designed by yourself? Thats pretty neat and a neat concept/methoed!

Is that a full on 90 degrees it will bend? Looks great for a homemade bender if it does what you need!

[daaboots]

I serached the web to get ideas from other homemade benders, but in the end it was my design. Yes, it does full 90 degree bends... kinks a little, but not too bad.

[Martinm210]

Awesome, thank you!!

[yoshi]

Originally Posted by daaboots

I serached the web to get ideas from other homemade benders, but in the end it was my design. Yes, it does full 90 degree bends... kinks a little, but not too bad.

The kinking is from the material your using, not the bender..

[Bullnerd]

I think theres a thread on OFN where a guy split a lenght of tube and layed it in his die to make the next size smaller.You might be able to do something similar on your bottom die.Just replace the angle with a lenght of split tube and support it really well right up to your bending die.It may support your tube better and remove the kinking.Hard to explain with my sorry azz typing.

found it.http://www.rockymountainextreme.com/...ad.php?t=64205

also after looking at your pics again i see the "follower" isnt under the center of the die?This is your problem.If you add this split tube mod and put it on some simple rollers,you'd have a sweet bender.

I'll find some more pics of what i mean.

[nutz4sand]

If you look at the very first pic of the die it looks like its got a tiny bit of a sorta flat spot at the bottom of the radius. I might wonder if that is adding to or causing the kinking?

[Bullnerd]

See how the follower rides on a roller.

Pipe Bending Machine & Equipment, Tube Notchers, Bead Rollers

[1yldryd]

I built a bender alot of years ago, no hydraulics just a long handle. I still have it and used it to make a rack for my 05 honda vfr 800 a couple years ago. When I started bending mild steel tubing it was just to hard to use and the aluminum dies started showing wear so I bought the Pro Tools 105 2 years back and it works well.


some of my old dies, benders buried around here somewhere

[daaboots]

Yeah i realize that the die isn't perfect. At the time I didn't know how to cut a nice half circle into the die (still don't ). The angle at the bottom is actually pulled in as the pipe is bent. This provides the support under the die as it rotates.

I like the idea of the larger tube instead of the angle... might try that someday.

Your dies look really nice 1yldryd. How did you make them?