(cnc) tube benders around philly area...?

We are making a tube mini-buggy for a competition at school. We are using .049 cromoly. The bender we have has a minimum wall diameter capability of something like .054 or something. We figured it would still be fine, but the tube just crimples after a bend of 45 degrees.

We're looking for someone that can do the bending for us with this thin wall tubing. It's half complex, but not very hard for an experience bender. We don't really need CNC, but we are behind now, and would love to get all this bending out of the way as quickly as possible. If anyone knows any business's in the area, please let me know.

Traveling a distance is kinda hard for us, but if we need to, we will find a way to make the trip with the tubing. So I'd say in a 2-3 hour travel time from philly is max travel time for us. Thanks a lot....let me know of any possibilites.

I would post in north atlantic, but I know a lot of people have connections with friends and companies around the country...so non-tech it is.

Thanks a lot. _nicko_

Go pack sand. No, really...fill the tube with sand and try again, you are using a tubing bender and not an exhaust pipe bender, right?

We already tried the sand trick, didn't help. Yes, we have a pro-tools bender.

Ok - I was just loooking for an excuse to tell someone to pack sand... :cheers: Good luck to ya...

packing tube with sand is for rednecks.

I LITERALLY just got back from picking up this bender in cleveland, direct from the manufacturer.



I went there for training and to bring it home.

I have tooling for 7 tubing sizes, and one three ball mandrel.

my 1.5 diamter is a 4.5 I.R. standard, it is not a compression style die.

what is your tube?

maybe I have tooling for it?

OK, our tubing is 1.25 x .049 wall cromoly. The radius the buggy is set up to take is 4.5" all around, with the same tubing all around. We are definitely sticking to 1.25, but we can adapt the set-up to a different radius bend. Too bad you're so f'in far away though.

There is a guy in NJ that said he MAY be able to do it. We have to send him the solidworks file for him to know for sure he said, which isn't quite finished yet.....should be done by this weekend though. We have no idea what kind of price we're looking at here either. Let me know what you got. _nicko_

I am unpacking tooling and wiring up tomorrow....

I don't remember ordering 1.25 tooling, so you might be outta luck!

hey, well thanks anyway.

For our next one...maybe next year, maybe two years...maybe you can bend it up nice and pretty for us, so start practicing!

_nicko_

I do have 1.25 tooling for the roller/bender, but I can't give you a tight radius.

if you can deal with a sweeping bend, lemme know.

try calling "tools for bending" in colorado. thell them you are looking for a manufacturer that they've sold 1.25 tooling to in your area.

what is your CLR anyway?

I'm gonna have to say the CLR is 5.125"...but that's just adding the radius of the tube to the radius of the bend. I don't know if there will be any significant deformations in the tube though. We don't have a sample bends of this tubing yet. If this NJ guy can't do it, I'll give those guys a call and see what they know. _nicko_

I finally got around to unpacking the tooling.

i *did* get a 1.25 diameter non-compression style die.....

but i have no mandrel or wiper tips for that wall thickness....

I can't imagine you'll be able to make bends with that minimal wall thickness without a 3-5 ball madrel AND the corresponding wiper die.....

My handy dandy bending chart shows that .045 wall is "off the chart" in terms of CLR without experiencing some bending failure without wiper or mandrel, however, it is showing that bending *may* be possible in .065 without tubing failure in 5.5" CLR and numerically greater.

have you tried bending 065 material on your bender?

that may be heavier than you wanted, but its not that much heavier. It could be the difference between you having to outsource your bending or not....

otherwise.....


the only thing I could do for you at this point is bend 1.75 on a 5.5 CL, mandrel and wiper too.

just let me know.