I didn't know where to post this so I posted in here as most of teh fab guys are here in this forum.

What kinda and brand are you guys using? I was looking into the bender and notcher from Northern Hydraulics...any good? I just don't wanna spend the money and have them turn out to be pieces of crap. Can you guys suggest something that will not break the bank, but work good for what it's made for?

 

ive been wondering the same thing

 

Great question. Well guys......?

 

I was looking at this one
http://www.northerntool.com/we...d=156

is the manual version fine or spend the thousands for a hydraulic?

worth the price?
http://www.northerntool.com/we...d=156

or get this cheaper version?
http://www.northerntool.com/we...d=156

 

Either one of those notchers will work fine, most of the finishing touches are done on a grinding wheel anyways. That bender is only for flat bar, square tube, or solid tube. It'll crush regular 4130 tubing. The one we have is from JD Squared. Honestly, I don't know how it compares to what all is available, but it works fine.
http://www.jd2.com/ We have the model 3. They get pretty expensive by the time you buy all the dies for different size tubing.

 

Hey Paul,
Not to bust your *****, but one thing I've learned over the years, is to never buy something smaller than what you need, or even "just enough". I'm a firm believer in over anticipating your needs so that in the event you ever need to do something bigger, you already own the tools. Nothing sucks worse than having a tool that won't do the job. For bending light gauge materials (intercooler piping of exhaust) a hand bender is fine, but doing chassis work is a bitch with a manual bender. I'm not saying it can't be done, but I'd rather spend a bit more and be able to stand up and wlk at the end of the day and not have a back ache from hell. I've used both types of benders, and even a manual/hydraulic is better than the full manual.

AS far as notchers go, make sure you spend your $$ in the right places. Don't buy cheap saws, get decent saws, ans either of those jigs looks fine. Is this for a production type environemt? or just for personal use??

Clayton

 

it's for production....And the bender will be for chassis

 

Wow. You guys get allthe cool stuff Those benders if we buy them up here are almost double the prices they show on that site Tony. At one of the former employers, we had the #6 style bender (a lot of pipe work) and after using that, it's tough going back to a fullmanual style bender. Nice pieces though for sure.

Clayton

 

Paul, the stuff Tony listed looks like top notch stuff, and for a not bad price too. You may ant to check around local job shops to see if anyone local to you can make you cheaper dies, but after going over the prices, I don't know that you'll get much cheaper. Like I said before, don't buy something that'll just get you by. Buy decent tools that'll last you!

Clayton

 

thanks Tony....that looks like a very nice machine

 

Good Info

 

jd2 is the way to go. for a notcher, we made our own. however if you are lookin to do production you can buy one for about 3 - 4 grand that works well. what are you planning on producing, that is the real deciding factor in what notcher to get.

if you dont get a hydro bender youre gonna be really tired, but you will probably get more chicks than us becuase you will be so buff.

 

"Wow Paul, you been workng out?"

"No, I got a manual tubing bender"

**** man, look at tony...Kenny wouldnt buy him a manual bender back in the day...he just swolled up.

 

At NuFormz, they use the "Ultimate Tube Notcher" from Mittler Brothers, and I believe they use the MB Bender also. Here is the link. The notcher is the sh*t...http://www.mittlerbros.com/

 

S&W Race Cars lists a notcher called "Ol Joint Jigger" that looks just like the one you linked, for 149.99 and the optional base for 30.00. They also carry the 1 5/8" and 1 3/4" hole saws for 7.99 and 9.99 respectively so for 197.97 you have the whole thing for less than at northern tools for just the notcher.

I've been looking at either the jd2 model 3 bender or the pro-tools bender. here's the link for the pro-tools http://www.pro-tools.com/index.htm

I've also been looking at grabbing the notcher from pro-tools that can do offset notches, i.e. not through the center of the pipe.


Modified by racerxadam at 9:11 AM 3/8/2004

 

We use a JD Squared Model 4 with the electric/hydraulic option. Used a Model 3 manual bender before that with awesome results.

 

We use everything from Mitler Bros. here......my first bender was a manual one.....F that!. The notcher from them is badass though. The machines themselves are not bad in price, its the tooling and die's you will need to perform the job with that will get very pricey.


Howard

 

Hey Paul , I have the one from Pro-Tool 105 hd and man that's the **** ..
But again the jd looks the same .. So either of those will work out . But
like what Tony said .. After all the dies , it will cost you a pretty penny ..
But it's worth every penny .. I don't think notcher brand matters ..
It's all in the whole saw ..Spend more on the blades and not the notcher ..

 

sorry if this is a dumb question, but can you just use a hole saw in a drill press as a notcher?