So I have alot planned for my jeep this summer and after the long winter I want to get in some much needed garage time. The problem is alot of the things I have planned involve bending tubeing. I was looking at the bender that harbor frieght sells for the sheer fact that is cheap. So my question is has anybody used this unit if so is worth the money and if so what can you do with it ( exo cage, sliders, etc.)? Also is there other benders better then this under $200? Thanks for the help!

 

you can crush alot of tube and waste it.

dont buy it. that is a pipe bender, not a tube bender. the dies are too big for the od of tubing so it just crushes when you try to make a bend.

i did run some weld beads down the sides of the dies to make them smaller and that helped a bit, but still the crappiest bends ever. tried filling the tube with sand and water like suggested on youtube. still, crap bends.

goes with the saying "you get what you pay for".......


i use a jd2 model 32......sweet, perfect bends everytime.

 

if you are talking about these, they are a bad idea, they are made for pipe, not tubing...
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalog...&q=pipe+bender
tubing needs full support so that the tubing doesn't kink
get one of these, (this was just a quick find they are cheaper on ebay and such)
http://www.irvansmith.com/scart/manu...term=IS2-MB-01
look for a used JD2 bender
http://www.jd2.com/t-bendercomparison.aspx

 

i also have the model 32 by jdsquared well worth the money...i buy all 180* dyes.. the harbor freight kinker is ok for very slight bends.i have buddies that own those and they just pay me to bend stuff and they weld it together now. also invest in a tube notcher. i bought the bender, 2 dyes,and a good notcher from jdsquared for about $1000. i'm very happy with it

 

sliders i did for my yota buddy notice the 135* bend at the back..flawless i swear by the jdsquared

 

These are the 2 I was looking at from harbor freight. Id love to get the model 32 but its alittle far out of my price range and its not like im gonna be using it every day.

 

neither of those will do what you want.

 

check pirate4x4 for JD2 benders, I think the price is pretty good

 

if you plan on doing any sort of fab save the money get a JD2 bender and build stuff for your buddies. hell I'm splitting the cost of a JD2 bender with a buddy because we both have a lot of stuff we want to make on our rigs then we'll farm stuff out for other people

 

try affordible bender.com they only go 90 degrees but are cheap and wont destroy your tube. i think one could be had for like 330.

 

That's probably what im gonn end up doing. Its little more then I wanted to spend but it seems like it'll be worth it in the long run.

 

just got my jd2 model 3 from today via trick tools. got a 1.5 5.5 180dgree die degree wheel, handel, anti spring back, and magnetic pointer also. all for 724.24 shipped

 

I just got the JD2 model 32 and a couple of dies. Havent used it yet but I did a lot of research before spending the coins and am sure will exceed my needs. I got their notchmaster a month or so back. Great company to work with for sure Good luck on whatever you decide to do