HarborFreight Tubing Bender item #99736

crazyal · Apr 9, 2010

I started off with an el-cheapo bottle jack pipe bender, 10 or 12 ton maybe. I then bought a set of dies for one of the $600 hydraulic benders. The set came with a 7" radius steel die that could bend 110 degrees, a strap to hold the pipe at one end, and an aluminum block about a foot long with a groove cut into it. Using some scrap steel (I made the mistake of using 3/8 plate so it weighs a ton) and copied the design of the bender the die fit on.

All and all I probably have $250 (may cost more now, I don't know) into the whole thing and have bent a dozen or so roll cages. Currently my step brother is using it to make a cage for a Suzuki Samurai. It would be easy to use a hydraulic press in place of the bottle jack if you had one. I've never used a non-hydraulic bender, not sure if I would want to bend a lot of tubing with out the help of hydraulic pressure. If interested I can get some pictures of it.

ncredleg · Apr 9, 2010

CrazyAl pictures would be great. Thanks

ncredleg · Apr 9, 2010

GT2 .Thanks that looks like a winner.

valley · Apr 9, 2010

Couple years back I bought a HF, the kind with a bottle jack. It was bad, flattened the inside of the bend ,not worth having, I took it back.

kymedic69 · Apr 9, 2010

Here is a neat little video using the Harbor Freight Bender on tubing.

YouTube - Bending part 2

crazyal · Apr 9, 2010

I got the dies from Pro-Tool in FL. I did a quick search for the company and came across this website.

Tubing Bender

It's someone who, like me, made a tubing bender. The difference between his and mine is mine sits horizontal and the base of the jack mounts to the end plate. I mounted the jack so the handle to pump it sits on the bottom so it doesn't run out of oil as you pump it up. I made a simple swivel stand. Because I used a pipe bender I used one of the top rollers for the aluminum track to ride on, I just slid a short piece of pipe over the roller to give it a smooth surface. I used a 3/4" grade 8 bolt for the roller and have multiple holes since the jack doesn't have enough stroke to do a full 120 degrees.

The main reason I went horizontal vs vertical like he did is I wanted to be able to bend a single length of tubing in different directions. With his you would have to put it on a table or something but it takes little to no effort to bend tubing so it wouldn't be hard. My plan was to use a potrapower cylinder like an Enerpac with a longer stroke. Just never got around to doing it.

If you would still like to see a picture of mine I'll be seeing my step brother next week and can take a picture or two.

ncredleg · Apr 10, 2010

Crazyal. Pictures would be great.Thanks,

crazyal · May 10, 2010

ncredleg said:
Crazyal. Pictures would be great.Thanks,

The weather has been a little crazy around here lately so my brother-in-law waited until this weekend to drop off the bender. If you still like me to take a few pictures I can.