Tubing bender dies

John_Dennis

Active User
Registered
Joined
Mar 5, 2014
Messages
379
Has anyone made their own tubing bender dies?

Why to most of the commercial tubing benders have a solid shoe instead of a roller?

Thanks

-John
 
Strength?
I would not be able to make a larger die in my bending machine. I have made dies for my tubing roller, they are much smaller.
 
I made some of my own custom dies for a Di-Acro #6 tubing bender I had.
It consisted of the die, clamp block and follow block. Most of them were made from 1018 and case hardened.
A few required a mandrel which I purchased.
A roller only gives a single point of contact.
 
When I made mine I went with a built up block....I remember noting on the bender dies I was trying to copy, the end of one block was slightly higher than the other toward the outfield end....I suppose to minimiz deformation at the point where the tube stretches around the die...id be surprised though if using a roller would be much different.
 
I have been thinking about building a tubing bender. The die dimensions seem to be pretty obvious but there are a lot of people who have had issues with the follow block alignment. Has anyone posted a tubing bender project? My first die will be a 2" which is at the extreme limit of the bender design I am looking at.

Denny, were the die dimensions exactly center line radius, inside radius, and tube diameter?
 
Last edited:
Nice home built bender greg. Did you make the large die on a mill? I have a jd2 bender. I've seen dies made for it, they look like a bear to make.

All info I've read is centerline, mine is centerline.
 
Made it on the lathe, roughed out the grove with a parting tool then used a round carbide insert as a forming cutter.
IMG_2097.jpg
Then cut away what I didn't need and welded on a shoe that was formed on the mill.
IMG_2098.jpg

Greg
 
I have been thinking about building a tubing bender. The die dimensions seem to be pretty obvious but there are a lot of people who have had issues with the follow block alignment. Has anyone posted a tubing bender project? My first die will be a 2" which is at the extreme limit of the bender design I am looking at.

Denny, were the die dimensions exactly center line radius, inside radius, and tube diameter?

Several years ago I made about 80% progress on a DIY DiAcro bender clone. I only started it because they fetch stupid money in good shape. At the time I needed one for a project but didn't want to lay out $500-$900 for used dirty and beat up which they typically are. It was a fair amount of work to get it even to this point which made me realize why they cost so much! Of course soon as I'm into it I hit the jackpot at an auction and get (3) of them with tooling and the elusive quick clamp for a few hundred bucks. The hardest and most costly part was the "nautilus" I had it hardened and a shop I'm friends with surface ground it for me post HT. Just needs the handle welded to the ring and the roller holder part. Someday. Ya right? :)

(The rust on top is courtesy of some cast iron parts I stupidy set on it for a few months. Duh! )

IMG_7976[1].JPG
 
The radius was the center line and the diameter matched the tube size.
Some I made on the mill with a ball end mill and some were made on the lathe.
 
Back
Top