which tubing bender to buy?

i am in the market to buy a tubing bender & don't know squat about them.
i am thinking about the jd2 model 3 or model 32 since they seem to be high quality & reasonable cost. you just have to grab your ankles when you order the dies for them. is it worth the extra dough to get the 32 over the 3 or is it just overkill? any other common benders to look into?
please school me! :farmer:

I own a jd2 type3 with the 1.5 and 1.75 dies on 6.5 radius, if u plan on just building things for you and your friends then it would be the right setup for you. I can't see spending the extra for the type 32 when the money can be put towards a tube notcher or a few sticks of hrew or Dom to learn on. If u plan on upgrading to a air/hydro ram or want to start producing offroad parts then you may want to step up. I just purchased a jd2 topnotch kit and it is the s/?t when compared to the HF tool I was using. Just remember that if the thought of producing parts to sell crossed your mind to help this stuff pay for it's self the liabilities that go with it are high. I purchased my bender at a local shop that was pushed into bankruptcy because of a crash at the dragstrip where a rear axle housing separated from the car do to some bad fourlink designing. I saw the vehicle and the work looked top notch but the plates holding the axle where zinc plated and designed to bolt on and the welded them. So be careful of who you do work for.
Now back to the question, look into purchasing a pc program or cad book that can help u a lot. I got a copy of tubeworks from a friend and has saved many feet of tubing and alot of time trying to lay out cages. You might want to look on www.vansant.com, or www.jmr.com, or www.tubeshark.com and see a few other styles.

i googled tubeworks and cant find a cad program. can you find a link to it? or tell me where i can get it? just wondering thx.

I couldn't tell you the actual name as I got this as a generic copy of the Internet from a friend the disc had tubeworks written on it and that's all I know. I can check it out and see what I can find for u.
Check out the one on jd2's websight. It's close to what I have mine just seems like it was designed by a high scoop student, very simple..

i have the jd2, and love it, hydro conversions are for old men.
the problem is, ive seen you're shop, you can afford the dies! buy yeah, theyre the most expensive part. i'd also pickup a tn-001 to go with your new bender.

over on offroadfabnet, the creators of bend-tech have been talking about an expansion module that allows you to build plate stuff in addition to tube, very reasonable prices, i plan to buy in in a couple months.

i was looking around on pirate last night & saw a vertical type bender built by pro bender that uses jd2 dies. it costs more than the jd2 bender but i liked the vertical design & that it rolls around on its own wheels & does not need to be anchored to the floor to use. it looked like a good solid design & uses shop air over a hydraulic cylinder for power.
btw this will be for my hobby shop use, i am not a commercial fab shop.

If you are going to be doing benders, I assume you have some fab equipment. Take a look at building the one from

http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm

If you get the plans from him, you can buy the protools dies for 10% off.

old_man said:

If you are going to be doing benders, I assume you have some fab equipment. Take a look at building the one from

http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm

If you get the plans from him, you can buy the protools dies for 10% off.

Click to expand...

Any one know how much the material would cost to build one?

old_man said:

If you are going to be doing benders, I assume you have some fab equipment. Take a look at building the one from

http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm

If you get the plans from him, you can buy the protools dies for 10% off.

Click to expand...

i have seen these before & they look like a pretty decent design.
i ordered up a set of their plans this morning, so i guess my search is over.
now i just need to find the time to build the damn thing! :eeks1: