Pipe Bender

[dragos28]

I'm thinking about buying this pipe bender from Harbor freight to bend the pipe that i'm using on my roll cage..

anyone have any experience with it?
i'm using 1 1/4" schedule 40 pipe.

http://www.harborfreight.com/garage-...der-32888.html

[nolejoel]

Dragos, I wished I would have bought one to try out to make my roll cage. I ended up making my with 90degree corners and using inner pipe to weld them together. I'll be posting up pics tomorrow.

[dragos28]

thats where i'm at. i want some nicer curves, & the 90 corners are not cutting it...

[ORTitan]

Maybe some things for you to consider. Schedule 40 pipe is heavy compared to round tubing like HREW (hot rolled electrically welded). Your 1 1/4" pipe has an outside diameter of of 1.660" and weighs 2.27 pounds per foot. 1 1/4" tubing is 1 1/4" outside diameter. It comes in various wall thicknesess from .049" to .120". The .120" wall weighs 1.45 pounds per foot. That is quite a difference when you add up all the tubing that you will use in a cage.

Unfortunately you will not get good results trying to bend thin wall tubing with a pipe bender at the dies do not support thin wall tubing correctly. There are ways to get around this they are just more work with this type of bender.

Good luck and show us how things turn out!

[pachanga90]

Keep this in mind too.Pipe and tubing are measured differently that's why they sell tubing or pipe benders.pipe is measured by Inside dia.Tubing is measured by Outside Diam. Using the.wrong die will kink the tube.Eastwood has a nice hydraulic tube bender with 5,die sets on sale $389.Hope this helps.

[RobCons]

I have one, it works ok but not great. You have to go real slow and careful when bending with it, especially all the way to 90 degrees or it will kink the pipe. It seems to work better on smaller diameter material and with the side rollers as far apart as possible. The 90 degree bends are more like a sweep elbow in plumbing. I have seen on-line hints to fill the pipe with sand and tape off the ends to prevent kinking, that is to much work for me.

[pachanga90]

Which bender do you have? Eastwood or Harbor Freight?

[Mayor of G Vegas]

I've got the one from HF they work ok ..... If your looking for a "real " roll cage look , I'd go another route ... - Mayor

[dragos28]

that eastwood looks nice.. i wonder if I can find one locally.. as i'm going to buy a bender today after i get off work.
I was hoping to keep the price at most $200... but that eastwood looks really nice..

I wonder how i can find out if any of the local welding/fabricating supply places carry it...

[danman]

I've built three cages with the HF bender. Like most have said, there are better options out there, but for less than $100, the HF does OK. The 90 degree bends are the tough ones, you have to take your time and they look kinda flattened out compared to how a tube bender would do.

I have tried 1 1/4 thinner walled roll cage material, and it kinks like crazy in this bender. The only thing that bends decently is the 1 1/4" schedule 40.