Just wanted to share with everyone the new addition to my tool collection.









I am working on a 10-point cage for my brothers AE86 Corolla, and will be posting up weekly progress pics.

 

Is that mandrel ? Just looks like a heavy pipe bender.

 

That bender is for exhaust pipes and won't bend roll bar tubing mild or moly correct. I doubt it will make nhra legal bends for a cage.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KFMRC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That bender is for exhaust pipes and won't bend roll bar tubing mild or moly correct. I doubt it will make nhra legal bends for a cage. </TD></TR></TABLE>

i dont think for a drift car they really care. but i agree it woudlnt be legal in any national sanction.

 

my local welding shop has one of thoes, its great for what it is. A press bender that flairs pipes, I hope you enjoy! Wish I had the money for one!

 

how much was it?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KFMRC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That bender is for exhaust pipes and won't bend roll bar tubing mild or moly correct. I doubt it will make nhra legal bends for a cage. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Ummm, you're completely wrong. A mandrel bender, which is what is for exhaust and intake pipe, needs an internal mandrel and are almost always CNC. Easy way to tell, the bender needs to have a table as long as the pipe it can bend because that mandrel needs to be held by a long *** pole inside the pipe.

 

It's a rotary-draw bender. We have a Bend-Pak one similar to that unit. Anyone who says that cages need to be mandrel bent is full of **** (because most if any aren't ) and a rotary-draw bender is actually optimum to other benders for cagework because of the fact that is does not thin out wall thickness. Any smooth bend is stretching out the material to the point that the outer curve is going to be thinner than the inner curve.

It's nice to see what some people think they know.

Anyways, nice buy. Make sure to test out different shoe pressures before you commit to start bending up good material.


Modified by backpurge at 6:34 PM 1/15/2006

 

backpurge very nicely said

 

for custom roll cages the piping doesnt need to be mandrel bent due to the fact that the wall thickness on the tubing is alot thicker then exhuasts and thats why the tubing will not kink or ripple
exhaust tubing needs to be mandrel bent or crush bent which will cause ripples and kinks in the tubing
with mandrel bent tubing you get a smooth bend without and kinks or ripples because there is a pipe that goes inside the actual tube being bent the material is being pulled and stretched on both sides which will not cause any problems

thats a very good find and good luck with it

like backpurge said get some scrap material first to get an idea of how everything works before you start using it on good stcok

Great find

 

Great buy, we have a few Corollas as well. Post some progress pictures. Also if your local, are you willing to bent pipes for a small fee? I'm also thinking of building a cage for his car.

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys

I would definately be willing to bend up some tube for some extra $$$ for anyone who needs it done. I'll also be doing a couple cages in the next few months, and will be posting up some pics, so if anyone wants anything done, please get in contact with me.

 

How far are you from LA?

 

Probably 2 hours. I'm not too far from Mt. High if you know where that is.

 

that looks like a really nice unit, i have one that looks identical but it's blue. very good bender, i've bent 2" solid bar with mine and it works just fantastic.
heh

 

i got a coupe ae86 also, i could use a prebent mainhoop also...