DIY square tubing bender

I posted this over on Pirate, and figured I'd repost it here for you guys' enjoyment.

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I've been approached to build several roof racks in the last week, and really wanted to be able to bend tube for a specific design I've wanted to build for a very long time (but haven't had an effective means to do so). After reading this thread, I had a Sunday funday project.

I did things a bit differently, and decided to make mine receiver mounted since I don't yet have an anchored bench in the garage, and when I do, it will have 2" receivers built into it.

I made the die from 3/4" x 3/16" flat bar, bent around a small gas cylinder (20 cu ft).

















And... The result of the first bend on 14ga 3/4" tube:





Bam. No sidewall deflection. I will be adding a crush bead to the middle of the die to make bending easier, though (getting it started takes some force).

It was a hell of a fun afternoon project, and will make building these roof racks possible. I've since built a 1" die as well:



In my haste, I screwed up 2 aspects of it:

1) The teardrop piece apparently wasn't perfectly flat when I welded the ends together... So it has a slightly off-true arc. After welding the side plates on, this became apparent.

2) I welded the handle receiver tube onto the opposite side of the die. No biggie, just weird.

I did put in a 3/16" inner radius crush bead which yielded a 1/4"+ divot in the tube. I'll be building a replacement 1" die sometime over the next few days (without the crush bead) to see what difference it makes in the process.

Completely forgot to take pics of the resulting bends, but they look good aside from scarring on the tube from the die walls. I'll snap a couple pics tonight.

that is rad.

Looks cool and I really appreciate anybody who rolls their own. Yours is really great for tighter radius usage. I may steal your design.

I did a large radius bender for 1" on my teardrop trailer project. It was considerably lower tech, but worked for the bending I needed to do.



Here is the result and a few more pix.

Very cool!

Thanks guys - I bent a few more practice pieces this weekend and found that these dies are WAY more consistent than I expected. Both the 3/4" and 1" dies yield identical bends from all angles and directions. Should make these roof racks look deceivingly "pro"

I also picked up a 6' digging bar, and shaved the pointed end down to a 1" diameter rod (really just had to shave the hex ridges down to a smooth cylinder). Now this thing practically bends 3/4" under its own weight.

Slickness!!

Man I need a welder

That's pretty cool!

Very nice. Just added another project to my list. Thanks for sharing.

Measurements/drawings?

I am making one very similar to this from scrap I have. I was using old sch 10 pipe as the base with a 3" radius for the bend and cutting 1x2 channel to be the sides (didn't have the flat plate).

Did you find the stock slide easily on the bolt as the base of the stock while bending? I was considering a 1/2 sch 40 pipe on a bolt to let it slide. I am just wondering if there is a friction problem, or wear problem, with repeated use without this sleeve, or not?

Anthrax, what is the diameter, or radius, of your your bend? How hard is it to bend?

I tried making one using 4" pipe, 4.5" dia and 2.25" radiius, as i needed a small 90 degree bend. I couldn't even budge it. I tried harder and all I did was bend the 3/4" schedule 40 handle. I'm just ober 200# and I didn't even make a kink in that damn 1 1/4" 16ga square tube. :doh: I tried to make it like a conduit bender, but now I am think I need a hydraulic piston to rotate it.

The big weld bead is the 3/16" plate tag to hold the tube in place while bending.