JD Model 32 tubing bender

Hello

Purchased a JD Squared model 32 tubing bender for future projects. Have any of you guys added the hydraulic option to this bender? I purchased the adapter for the bender and was thinking about using a cheaper Harbor Freight, air over hydraulic pump and ram.
The reason for the hydraulics is I didn't want to drill holes and mount the stand into the garage floor. Seems hard to find the right spot with enough room to bend up frame rails, etc.

My plan is a C.M., tube chassis for a 64 comet. Strut front and 4 link rear. This will be my first attempt at a strut front end, tube chassis car. I will need lots of help from you fellas. Putting Dilligas on speed dial! ha ha

Thanks

Check out Swag offroad.

Curt wrote:Check out Swag offroad.  

X2

i bought mine with the ram included.i already had the air/hyd pump.it works great mounted on a spare engine stand.if you plan to bend any 3/4 you'll need to fab up an extension for your ram.for the small stuff the die dont have enough room for a hole to drop the pin into.you have to swing it out far enough for the pin to hit the strap clamp,becouse 3/4 can be bent the manual way i suppose........i just use extensions from my 4ton ram set.

747JetMech wrote:.......Seems hard to find the right spot with enough room to bend up frame rails.........

That's why I have 2 different spots in the shop floor with anchors in the concrete, one set in front of an overhead door & the other set farther back in the shop.

Having a hyd setup is nice, but doing a manual pull with the JD2 stuff really isn't all that hard IMO. If you oil the die/shoe surfaces & the piece of tubing a little before bending it helps a lot when bending manually. But oil really does need to be used anyway IMO regardless if it's a manual or hyd setup since doing so will greatly reduce the chance of galling up the die/shoe sets on both setups.

I am ordering the swag offroad kit just in case. Also ordering the plasma circle cutter.

Dilligas, I built a frame table using your advice. C Channel... Also bought the concrete threaded inserts from Fastenal for the tubing bender so I am ready to go either route.

First project with the bender is to finish the cage on my kids go cart. He has a old school, no cage, no protection go cart. I let him take it out yesterday after not riding it for a year. I told him not to go fast. As soon as he was out of site, WIDE OPEN!

While I am at my favorite metal store, order some chrome moly for my first tube chassis attempt. The lady on the phone told me its cheaper the more you buy... I think this is going to hurt...$$$

We like to manually bend everything. I have used the hydraulic style too and really didn't care for it but to each their own I guess. We also have multiple spots in the floor to use our bender.

Where are you located? I usually buy pretty large quantities of CM and get a decent rate just due to the shipping savings.

Yup if you can't get the material locally and have to ship it in, the more you buy at one time the more you save on material & shipping costs vs making several smaller orders during the build. These days build cost vs end results is more important than ever when building any type/class of drag car.

It's kinda like the whole 'moly tubing vs DOM m/s tubing vs ERW m/s tubing decisions people have to make when building a 7.50 & slower car and looking only at build cost vs end result (but not factoring in resale value of course). With the fairly high price of DOM m/s tubing these days it's almost reached/has reached the point where IMO it really doesn't make sense to use it to build a 7.50/slower car vs using either 'moly tube or ERW tube. If you're a racer that's budget can easily afford the cost of DOM m/s, and also feel DOM's high price is worth the small improvement in strength over ERW m/s (small improvement when comparing DOM to HREW, and not DOM to the softer CREW stuff), then you might as well spend a few more coins & get the 'moly tubing instead. On the other hand if you are a racer on a tight budget and can't afford 'moly tubing, (and also don't want 'moly because m/s is "easier" for the average budget racer to fix) then DOM's cost these days is high enough where it's really not a usable choice either in this situation vs the lower priced ERW m/s tubing.

Ok guys, the tubing bender works great. Problem I had was indexing the tube correctly when making numerous bends.. Is there some sort of tool you guys attach to the end of the tube that give you degrees of rotating while clamped in the bender?


Thanks.

Tom

http://www.trick-tools.com/ALB001-Combo-Rotation-Gauge-ALB001-Combo-6727#.UzDh_H-9KSM

I usually use this.....

http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-angle-gauge-95998.html

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:I usually use this.....

http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-angle-gauge-95998.html

X2...works great

I had one of those too. I like the clamp I posted due to the fact that it gives you a flat surface that stays put.

I will order one tomorrow...

Tom

747JetMech wrote:.......Problem I had was indexing the tube correctly when making numerous bends......

Truth be told if you're bending something that has all it's bends on the same plane without needing any change in axis rotation/indexing from one bend to the next bend, (like say a "flat" main hoop) one of the simple-cheap plastic angle finders from HF, Lowes, or HD is usually more that enough to get the job done.

The real need for the digital angle finders when bending tubing is when you're needing to be super accurate like when doing some compound angle bends so you can get the tube's needed axis rotation change as correct as possible between each bend. Like making the front bar of the FC cage where it could have 2, 3, or 4 bends all with different indexing. And a digital angle finder also helps when having to bend a second compound bend tube, but in reverse, to make the first compound bend tube's "mirror twin". Like when making driver & passenger one piece windshield bar/roof bar combos with compound bends so they fit as tight as possible.