as the title says im looking for a mandrel bender that can bend up to 180 degrees and at least up to 2 1/2 inch tick pipe or tube, i want to spend a thousand dollars maybe 1500.00 at most. whats your experience with some benders? ive looked around and most company's have those state of the art benders for like 25 thousand dollars, but i don't know what bender i need for making u bends and basic bends for exhaust, turbo manifolds, charge pipes.

 

No dice kid

 

if you find one that cheap i'll take 4.

 

so you basicaly cant get any bender that bends tubing that thick? for less than 20 grand

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by h kid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so you basicaly cant get any bender that bends tubing that thick? for less than 20 grand</TD></TR></TABLE>

The one our company is looking at getting is closer to $40k. Mandrel benders are not cheap.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mbpwrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

The one our company is looking at getting is closer to $40k. Mandrel benders are not cheap.</TD></TR></TABLE>
hey your local and if you have a shop maybe you can hook me up, i want to start building turbo manifolds charge pipes and anything else that ocurs to me. hit me up maybe we can get bulk rate price or something

 

I would be more than happy to work with you and our current prices can't be beat.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mbpwrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The one our company is looking at getting is closer to $40k. Mandrel benders are not cheap.</TD></TR></TABLE>

try 60k plus with tooling

for a good machine, the die sets alone will run about 4-5k each

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PhoenixTurbo.com &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">try 60k plus with tooling

for a good machine, the die sets alone will run about 4-5k each

</TD></TR></TABLE>

He never mentioned die sets so I didn't want add salt to his wound.

 

This one was posted in the other thread, I really would like some feedback on it and how good it does work. Because if it worked well and does what it says it can do, I would really be interested in it.

http://pro-tools.com/

http://pro-tools.com/105.htm

 

pro tools makes another one that has a hydro pump on it. but the only thing with those is that the radius of the bends isnt that tight you have to buy dies for each size tubeing and i dont think they will do anything over 2 inch piping or tubing. one of the two. and there is a differance between tubing and piping. if you guys didnt know.

 

It's not going to do thin wall tube either. It will do cages but not exhaust/IC piping

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by chrisgvr4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It's not going to do thin wall tube either. It will do cages but not exhaust/IC piping</TD></TR></TABLE>

How do you know, is it just hear say or do you own the product ?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by b20turbojason &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> and there is a differance between tubing and piping. if you guys didnt know.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I know the difference, but the pro tool bender says its for pipes and tubing. I'm gonna email them and see what they have to say


Modified by 90blackcrx at 2:42 PM 7/7/2005

 

The protools bender will NOT do what you need. It will not make a bend that is a true circle. If you bent something in it, cut in middle of the bend and turned it about 45 degrees, it would no longer line up, since they're going to be an oval shape in the bend. A true mandrel bender will keep the nice round shape throughout the bend. To make headers and stuff, you MUST be able to keep a true round shape so you can cut the bends in middle and reweld them.

Fact: Many of the top companies in custom headers and manifolds do not find it cost-effective to buy a mandrel bender, and choose to buy bends.

Fact: Many companies that buy a mandrel bender will then find that they have to have a man making bends all day every day and sell the bends, just to make the machine pay for itself.... thus the competitive market for bent tube.

In other words, unless you plan to put out about 100 manifolds a week, you will find that you're better off buying the bends from some company that is now having to sell bends, just to pay off their bender.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Engloid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The protools bender will NOT do what you need. It will not make a bend that is a true circle. If you bent something in it, cut in middle of the bend and turned it about 45 degrees, it would no longer line up, since they're going to be an oval shape in the bend. A true mandrel bender will keep the nice round shape throughout the bend. To make headers and stuff, you MUST be able to keep a true round shape so you can cut the bends in middle and reweld them.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

for the great answer.

So if I buy a u bend from say summit or jegs and I cut it in half or right at the bend, and its oval shaped. That's not a true mandrel bend ?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 90blackcrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

for the great answer.

So if I buy a u bend from say summit or jegs and I cut it in half or right at the bend, and its oval shaped. That's not a true mandrel bend ?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes. It will not be a perfect fit, even with a mandrel bend, but will be very close. If it is a rotary draw bender (like the one pictured above), you will be able to see a change in the shape of the pipe, just at the point that it begins into the bent area. Look at roll cages and things like that and you will usually see a bump on the inner side of the bends...one on each end of the actual bent area.

A rotary draw bender is fine for roll cages or structural items, but not good if you have to cut bends, turn them and expect them to mate up.

 

Thanks for the info Engloid! I wasnt aware of all of that. I will be purchasing that bender from Pro Tools in the next 2 months or so. Just to confirm it, the Pro Tools bender IS OKAY for roll cages and that? Just not exhaust?
And to whoever it was that said the Pro Tools bender wont do thin wall stuff....it will do .058 wall thickness stuff. Not sure what you would be doing that would be thinner than that. Maybe you were just referring to "thin wall" as "exhaust tubing"....in other words stating what Engloid di saying that it wont do exhaust stuff?
Thanks Again Engloid!
Kyle

 

Yeah, it should do fine for roll cages, but not for manifolds and headers.

Keep in mind that you will need dies for each size of pipe or tube you bend. This bender you have pictured is nothing out of the norm for benders. They're getting pretty popular and are made by many companies. What I'm saying is to shop around for a good price, check prices of mandrels. Some benders may only be able to use dies bought from that particular company, and other may accept them all, or a "standard" design....alowing you to shop around for dies in the future.

Will they bend tube? likely, yes... but it's a stretch on the bender's abilities. You will likely have to fill the tube with sand and cap the ends...and even at that, it will not be sufficient for anything more than roll cages.

 

Can someone sticky a thread at the top of the forum that says "you cannot buy a cheap mandrel bender?" This topic seems to show up every few weeks and its always the same question with the same answers from the same people.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by d@ve.G &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Can someone sticky a thread at the top of the forum that says "you cannot buy a cheap mandrel bender?" This topic seems to show up every few weeks and its always the same question with the same answers from the same people. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree. This is a very common thing. If it were a sticky, I'd be more likely to post a better explanation, but when I know it will come up again and again, I get tired of anwering it in the most detail.

 

I have the bender pictured and it works great when bending thicker material for a cage or roll bar but it will not bend any tubing that is thin walled.

 

azfab....what is your defenition of thin wall? as i said before, they advertise dies for stuff as thin as .058....thats pretty damn thin if you ask me. so are they feeding you a bunch of sh*t?
kyle

 

I guess that I would say that 16-18 guage stuff would be pretty thin and I know that they tell you it will bend stuff that is that thin but I really doubt it !! I have never used the bender for anything other than the stuff that I mentioned so I guess I cant say for a 100% that it wont work, but I have doubts. I guess you will have to purchase the bender and try it for yourself. Not to mention that the dies are a pretty penny too. Good luck !!

 

Mandrel benders have a ball in the pipe as its bending.

 

the bender pictured will only bend thicker stuff not to mention they generally have bigger clr's... a common size in both headers and cages 1.625 lets say... with a bender like pictured above... u generally get a 6" to 7" clr... with a full mandrel bender... im not sure what the clr's are for them... but u could probably get it down to about 2-3"...a 3" exhaust bend can typically have a 3" clr... no way u can do that on thinwall without the mandrel inside