Are those compact bender dies made of aluminum? I might have to make a pivoting tool holder for my lathe and see if I can make a set.
I have a 16 ton pipe bender from Homier. I've had pretty good luck with it. One additional trick I use is to pad the outer rollers with some short pipe halves from some 2" SS pipe. It really cuts down on denting by those rollers.
My local supplier sells sch 40 unfinished pipe that has a very smooth outer surface and bends nice in the hyd. bender. Just make sure the weld is on the inside of the bend. I tried a bend with the weld on the outside and it broke open.
Here are some shots of a tractor rack I made using my hydraulic bender and 3/4" sch 40 unfinished pipe. The boom pole in the pic is the first bend I ever made with that bender. It is 2" boiler pipe.
