square tubing bender questions

[Big Barn]

If you are reluctant to buy a bender I like the way GPintheMitten did his. Otherwise you could set up a jig on a heavy bench or table and bend them by hand utilizing the length of tube for leverage before cutting to length.

If you are only using 3/4" or 1" light wall tubing of course.

Terry

 

[flyerdan]

If you don't want to buy tooling, you might be able to find a fab shop that has metal rolling capabilities that will roll a stick for you. Make a cardboard template of the arc and how long and how many pieces; shouldn't be that much for about a ten foot stick and ten minutes feeding it through a couple times.

 

[crazyal]

I made a bender that uses pre-made dies. They dies were around $200 for 1 3/4" round tube for a roll cage. Originally I used the hydraulic jack from a 16 ton Harbor freight pipe bender. Now I use my 20 ton hydraulic shop press (it's air/ hand powered). This is close to how my bender works. I think if you had a 10 porta-power it would be enough to bend most pipe. The die I have is steel with an aluminum shoe (the company below dies are all aluminum). If you look at it closely you can see it's not really hard to make.

 

[pat32rf]

Used to make bends in 3/4" square tube just using an electricians thinwall bender. If you know how to use them for regular round pipe, square tube will bend the same, at least along the flat sides..a dogleg bend might be a problem, never tried.

 

[BAP]

Thank you for all the ideas. I am still thinking about how I am going to do this project and just waiting for summer time events to slow down so I can get started.

 

[FredH]

Portable Manual Hand Metal Round Square Pipe Tube Bender w 8 Dies | eBay

Above is the same as this one at Amazon :

Portable Hand Round Square Pipe Tube Bender w/ 8 Dies - Rebar Cutters And Benders - Amazon.com

For what You are describing , I would look at something like that . Never know what You might use it for later .

Or Here is a interestng video of what appears to be a home built with purchased dies .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u7mk5bBmms

Fred H.

 

[lamanated]

for a source of cheap light square or rectangle tubing,, I got a pile of it at the local steel recyclers for 20 cents an LB. its these gazebos and arches for gardens.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I was going to mention the required dies for square tubing, so it does not just kink in a bender designed for round.