My luxury of using a band saw, lathe, pipe bender and any sort of metal working tool you can think of is gone, the company i worked for goin on 5 years shut its doors and so i got laid off. Now all those tools i used at work, i dont have access to now. So, im in the market for a good chop saw that swivels and cuts angles and a tube bender. Im not wanting no high dollar setup on either, just thought id ask you guys what you might use every day or have a home thats worked well for you. I got all a man needs as far as a welder, flamin hot stick, speedy cut wheel and so on. Just now if i had a good chop saw and a tube bender, i could be gettin some done because for one, my next project is rock sliders and tieing them in with my bumpers...

 

Sounds like my story, almost word for word. Sucks ***, huh? Try this for a tube bender.
http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm or
http://www.pro-tools.com/

 

if your work closed , offer some money for the tools there , but i have a ryobi chop saw i bought at home depot , its been going strong for ateast 5 years if not longer , as for a pipe bender ... let me know what you come across because im looking for one too

 

I have an abrasive Chop Saw.... I really don't like it. I normally end up using the band saw.. or the Dake Cold saw at work.

 

That's the one I built. I bought the plans before the air-over hydro option was included so I modified the plans and added a $70 HF 8 ton pneumatic ram. Best tool mod ever!!

 

Hey Frank, What would you charge me for the plans for a bender. I need to make one badly to make some tubing bumpers and a ton of other stuff. Detailed pics would be awesome too. Just wondering.

 

You can get 'em off the website for $17.99

I'd charge $100.

 

I see!

 

That would be one hell of a tube bender, cheap! But...... how much are the dies?..

 

Dies are the most expensive part of any bender. Avg for pro tools or JD2 is around $250 a set.

 

I saw one on ebay that came with dies from 1/2" to 2". It was setup with a 12 ton jack.



Here it is!


http://cgi.ebay.com/12-TON-HYDRAULIC...item53de0ba2dd

 

Thats a PIPE bender, not a tubing bender.

 

Wall thickness is the only difference isn't it? Could it bend say 1 1/2" tubing?

 

More to it than that.
Google Tube vs. Pipe.

 

fixed it.


those are not worth much at all if you are working with tubing, spend the $$ and get or build an actual tube bender.