Have some tubing left over from a ranger project from 8-9 years ago. Got a little rust but a good media blast will clean them up.

I wan to make some rock sliders but I have a few problems. 1)No pipe bender. I do have a propane torch and a bench clamp but I'm not sure how well that will work if at all (not sure the wall thickness OD is maybe 1" or 1.5") 2) no welder. Not much can be done about that 3)no square tubing. Again not much to do about that.

Any tips on the bending though?

Get a bender. Or make a new friend with one.

You can bend it without a bender, it's radious bench bending.......but, it wont suit your needs, it's done for a large radious......hell, I've done it between 2 trees in Maine....but again, not for the application requested.

Gatchmo has the right idea.....

Womp woooomp. Lol

Even if you had a bender without a welder you won't be making any sliders. Find someone with a welder and cut two or three short pieces per side and weld them to a long piece and weld plates on the other end of them and you have sliders. Nothing amazing but will work.

No, but I would have the pieces ready to be welded.

The super old school way of bending tube, mostly by chopper guys"believe Jessie james" stilll uses this for some "authentic" builds is to cut some hardwood "shoes" to uses as dies...then heat the hell out of the tube with a rose bud torch, then pull around the "shoe".

That's what I was thinking. I just dunno if the propane torch will get hot enough. It is a full size torch off of a BBQ tank.

no....map gas/propane i dont think will get hot enough, you really need acetylyne.

yeah I didn't think so

HarborFreight Tools YUMA, AZ #42 101 W 16TH ST, STE B Yuma, AZ 85364
http://www.harborfreight.com/compact-bender-38470.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-ton-...der-32888.html
best 90-110 bucks you'll ever spend.

they are horrible...save your money.


manteca huh....lol. brings back memories. i grew up there.

i feel like 1.5" might be a bit small, but i guess if you dont know the wall...as far as bending goes save your money, make some marks where you want 45's or 90's and have someone (muffler shop, or machinist) bend it for 10-15$. without a welder i think your kinda SOL

I'll combine two suggestions above; Make friends with a local jeeper that works in a muffler shop. Beer always helps. I'll bet you can get the bends done for free.

I hope you have a welder?

I rented an "emt/imc/rigid" conduit bender a year ago for about $45 for 8 hours. It's called a triple nickel bender (Greenlee 555) I'm an industrial electrician by trade so the pipe bending thing is my "art". But those bends will not be as small as what a muffler shop can do with their benders. 3/4 trade size=13" diameter
1" = 16
1.25=19.4
1.5=21
2"=34"
Muffler shops do 65% smaller bends.
But the emt is cheap and I own a 3/4" and a 1" hand bender.