Hydraulic Tool Bender Build

[Trickle X]

Hey folks, just wanted to share with you a Hydraulic tube bender I built over the winter. I did my research and found that this bender would suit my needs perfectly and what better than buying a tool, then building one. Here is the link if you are interested in building your own. You will need to buy the plans for around $18, but from there it is relatively inexpensive to do the build if you have the skills and or tools and patience.

http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm

Enjoy
This is the largest hold needed drilled, 1 3/8"

after drilling


the swing arm, now unfortunately for me, this one was off an 1/8th of an inch due to an error on my part, so I actually made a 2nd one. This pic is of the 1st one.


1/4" box steel

[Trickle X]

[Trickle X]

and what I make with it....7/8 x.120 wall footpegs that I sell for scooters. This model is for the Yamaha Zuma 125

here is a pic of a batch I made and ready to ship.

[Mr120]

Nice work and even nicer that you are making money from the project. All of your welds TIG welded?

[Trickle X]

Thank you....Yes it is all tig since that is the only we
lder I own currently. I should of gapped some of the joints a little more since it was such thick steel. It was some of the thicker stuff I've welded as I am normally welding 16 gauge or schedule 10 pipe.

[geezer]

Nice work,,,just drilling the holes can be a challange,,,1 3/8 is at the limit of most mill drills or common shop drill presses,,,unless you have tried drilling holes like yours,,a person just cannot appreciate what can go wrong in the process...

[Trickle X]

Nice work,,,just drilling the holes can be a challange,,,1 3/8 is at the limit of most mill drills or common shop drill presses,,,unless you have tried drilling holes like yours,,a person just cannot appreciate what can go wrong in the process...

Yes it sure wasn't easy. I used a S&D bit and they really like to run slow and the slowest my drill press would run is 200rpm. it took a lot of patience to get it done. My mill couldnt do it, it just doesn't have the torque down low in it's current configuration. I used lots of oil and american drill bits as the china bits were just hit or miss. The actual best chinese bits I found was the S&D kit from Harbor Freight. They did a fantastic job...almost as good as the american bits however they wouldn't keep their edge as long. For $29 for the kit compared to $60 for one american bit....I took my chances but ended up having to buy a few american bits to get the job done. I also had to make another swingarm so that was double the drilling.

[Rambozo]

For some of the small plates like you showed, another option is to throw them in a four jaw or on a faceplate and bore them in your lathe.

There is another gottrikes bender build thread around here, too.
http://www.everlastgenerators.com/fo...r-build?p=8651

[Trickle X]

For some of the small plates like you showed, another option is to throw them in a four jaw or on a faceplate and bore them in your lathe.

There is another gottrikes bender build thread around here, too.
http://www.everlastgenerators.com/fo...r-build?p=8651

Thanks for posting the other thread! Yes you are correct, I just didn't have a lot of lathe time in at that point and wasn't comfortable in doing it that way. I also now have a bore tool for the mill and that would work like I used in my other thread to make a perfect hole for my fuel pump.

[Trickle X]

here are the pix for reference...

[Rambozo]

Thanks for posting the other thread! Yes you are correct, I just didn't have a lot of lathe time in at that point and wasn't comfortable in doing it that way. I also now have a bore tool for the mill and that would work like I used in my other thread to make a perfect hole for my fuel pump.

Yeah, I saw that in your other thread. Lots of ways to skin that cat. Another option is Rotabroach annular cutters, they make large holes withing the reach of a light drill press or mag drill. Not cheap, but worth it for a lot of jobs. Just in case others are looking to make something like this without a shop full of machines.
Did you buy or build your dies? I'm always on the lookout for a good source for bending dies.

[Trickle X]

Yeah, I saw that in your other thread. Lots of ways to skin that cat. Another option is Rotabroach annular cutters, they make large holes withing the reach of a light drill press or mag drill. Not cheap, but worth it for a lot of jobs. Just in case others are looking to make something like this without a shop full of machines.
Did you buy or build your dies? I'm always on the lookout for a good source for bending dies.

The bender is designed around the Pro-tools dies. I bought the dies from Pro-tools as it comes with everything including all the pins. for price it wasn't worth me trying to make my own but doesn't mean I won't give it a go sometime in the future.