fabricators: tube bender avail soon

[fiero308]

here we go again.  Last yr turned out to be a less than a great-accomplishments year due to the sheer workload; I am planning and counting on being able to spend a solid 2 wks on the car in april/may. The type of work I am doing will require bending some tubing so I am planning on getting that tube bender this time around; have already contacted the supplier, etc.

This is NOT a mandrel bender ($$!!!) but it IS the type that is used/approved for roll cage bending and so on in race car shops. Does not kink tubing within the limits of its operation. Roll cage tubing, for example, is 1 5/8" and can be bent to a centre line RADIUS of 6" without kinking.
I had a Princess Auto bender a couple of yrs ago and returned it; it "bulldozes" the tube and tends to flatten it; this one will 'roll' or 'track' with the tube as it bends and the dies are very high quality so it is acceptable for (ie) roll cage fabrication etc.  With another die set I will be able to do up to 2" OD but I may not get that for a bit yet.  
Just to let people know that this is in the works and hopefully avail. if they have need of some bends; I will be limited in what OD's I can do till (if? when?) I build up my die selection..... kinda pricey stuff but hope to get a few....

[Kitten]

Excellent  

[FieroDough]

Wow! That is excellent news! think you can help me buil my roll bar for the back window?

here is the info:
http://www.chaserace.com/cage/ssccfiero.html

[GoFast85]

Interesting roll bar. It looks like the strut tower brace will get in the way of installing the rear window. They do not mention how the body and window will have to be modified. The construction looks like a bit of overkill on material and would lead to alot of weight.

[FieroDough]

i just want this part:

[dguy]

This is NOT a mandrel bender ($$!!!) but it IS the type that is used/approved for roll cage bending and so on in race car shops. Does not kink tubing within the limits of its operation. Roll cage tubing, for example, is 1 5/8" and can be bent to a centre line RADIUS of 6" without kinking.

These types of benders typically use what looks like a chain of steel balls maintain the tube's diamter through the bend, don't they?

You may have hung yourself with this announcement BTW.  

I've had a couple of crazy ideas flinging around my head lately that could probably take advantage of a tight radius bend or two.  So when I get around to making the ideas become real, and if you're willing...  Heck I'll even contribute toward the die purchase if it requires one which you don't already have!

[aaron88]

I don’t like that role bar.  There is a lot of redundancy and poor visibility.  If this guy was going to run the cage to the rear struts he should have run it whole thing outside the car down the fire wall in the engine bay.  Just my thought, but I don't know the rules.

Aaron

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[fiero308]

well an update
and yes, Don, you are prob right about hanging myself.  But I have been looking at how many DIES would be req'd to do the sizes of tube I want/need to use (and what is most common for other purposes) and it becomes prohibitive.....  roughly $225US per set PLUSPLUSPLUS all the markups, shipping, handling, profit on the Cdn side etc etc and suddenly for the 3 most common die sets alone I am looking at almost $1500 Cdn....... oh yeah; you still need the MACHINE itself......... If I was going to be doing this on a 'regular' or paid basis then I still would consider it, but I know that isn't going to happen.
Now the good (or at least reasonable) news.  Kenyon Racing in Kemptville has been fabricating race cars for years - decades actually.  They have a bender and most of the common dies.  1", 1 1/4", 1 1/2" 1 3/4" and so on.  They are darn quick at using it and very accurate too, due to experience.

Eric: if you are putting a hoop in, are you doing it to some particular rules-driven req'ts?  ie wall thickness/type of tube?  Other items?  If you have that, then you likely are best off getting them to do something like that.  They have DOM tubing in both 1 5/8" (most popular for drag racing) and 1 3/4" (std for stock cars) in .095 wall DOM tubing and that is prob what you want.  If you want something less or other, they prob can do that too and likely have the tube on hand.  You aren't likely to find tubing for that kind of thing in stock in ottawa anyway; I have tried to get it from time to time and it isn't popular here.
So I would suggest taking some measurements (they can tell you which, I am sure) and seeing what they want to do it.  It is not a simple thing.....
So I am going to be getting the things I need done at Kenyon; I really wish I could justify getting my own tube bender but it takes (just too much) cash that I can put to better use on my car.  I hope everyone understands.

[FieroDough]

nope, not for any special rules. help make the body more ridgid and save my sorry a$$ some day.