Can I bend 3/4" tube with a conduit bender??

I figured this was Tech, although not specific to XJ's it's not "other" tech either. Gonna be building a roof rack and workin on another certain project, and was wondering if for this app I could get by with a manual conduit bender. Will it "crush" the tube or will it be sufficient? Thanks

Ary

P.S. If you don't know what I'm referring to by conduit bender, it's a die on the end of a pole with a foot pad on one side of the die. You insert the EMT into and pull/step onto it to bend the EMT. THanks again

P.S.S. Thinkin .120 wall or less

.120 wall is about the same size as Schedule 40 pipe, and based upon the guy that broke our conduit bender at work, no, it is not the appropriate tool.
Also, I believe that EMT is 3/4" OD, vs. water pipe is 3/4" ID. 1/2" waterpipe is about 3/4" OD, but I don't think that would work either. Perhaps if you heated the tube to make it easier to work with? The conduit bender is designed to maintain a fairly constant oval shape through-out the bend.
HTH, Cheropair

I used a conduit bender to do mine. 1/2" EMT is about 5/8" OD and .065 wall thickness (est). Sounds light weight, but thats what you want when you're adding stuff up high. Plenty strong, though. I've had a spare on mine, high lift jack, soft baggage carrier, mountain bikes, canoe, used it for three of us to sit on for fireworks display, etc. It handled everything you'd throw at a rack with no problem.

What I didn't like is welding with the galvanized coating. I did mine outdoors to be safe and it wasn't much of a problem. Welding through the galvanize is a little tougher too, but not that big of a deal. You also have to watch for warping with the small diameter, thin wall stuff.

I'd do it again.

Ok, I went and looked at some tubing, and 3/4 looks huge for what I want to do. I'm thinkin 5/8 or 1/2" now(5/8 for the rack 1/2 for the car). Thanks

Ary

I used a conduit bender to bend 3/4" .120 wall tubing for my roof rack. It worked out beautifully! The bender left no marks on the tubing and bent it perfectly. I used 1"x1 1/2" rect. tubing for the cross slats and the 3/4" tube for everything else. It isn't too horribly heavy and is VERY strong.