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Bending tube... educate me.

Old Aug 9, 2009 | 12:54 PM
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Default Bending tube... educate me.

I'm about to make my own fuel can carrier and want to bend the material to match my roofrack style.

This is the bend i need.. how do i measure it and get the correct square tube die? In the pic you can make out that there is the indentation for the full length of the 90* bend. Do i measure the ID width and divide by two?

If anyone here is able to bend 3/4" 16g square tube PM me.

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Old Aug 9, 2009 | 04:33 PM
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I'm not sure how to handle square tube offhand, but it should be covered in Machinery's Handbook - pretty much any recent edition should serve. It's a book I recommend to anyone wanting to do any kind of fabrication work anyhow, and well worth whatever you spend on it.
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Old Aug 14, 2009 | 07:28 AM
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I'd try to find a machine shop in your hometown to bend the metal to your specs. You can old-school heat up with a Cutting Torch and ram a rod down it and try it yourself...but the thin 16 g could just break on ya!
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Old Aug 14, 2009 | 07:35 AM
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What bender are you using? Can't recommend a die source without knowing the basics.

A must read for all that are getting into tube bending:
http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/bendin_tube/
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Old Sep 3, 2009 | 02:12 PM
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I realize I'm a bit late..... But if you want to build your own bender, it's pretty easy to do. I haven't built one yet, but will shortly when I fab my roof rack. Cut a few plates as show in the pic, something for a handle, a few small tabs for the retainer/slider, and I'll be using a 90° section of 6" SCH 40 pipe. Cut the pipe the size of your tube, i.e. 3/4" tubing, cut the pipe section to 3/4". Or you could try to roll a piece of flat bar to a radius. I was just thinking I had a small section of 6" pipe, and it's a lot more of a consistent radius. Weld it all together, and go at it. Functions like a manual conduit bender. The small 1/8" square stock in the middle of the radius is to help form the indentation on the inside of the radius. Without this, you'll be fighting the material like crazy.

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Old Sep 3, 2009 | 02:15 PM
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Or you can go here for premade 90° elbows of square tube. Radii look smaller on these than you could probably reproduce accurately at home with a bender like above. I've heard they cost about $5 each for a 1"x1"x1/16" size.

http://www.quickfab.ca/
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Old Jul 19, 2011 | 12:03 PM
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Moved to chat.

Anyone have info on making a tubing bender that is capable of bending a cage properly?
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