I'd like to know what they use to make the top frame rails on the bikes, the long contigous curve front to rear. What kind of bender does that?
This guy called and says he is getting great results bending 2 x 3 .120 wall rect tubing the hard way, set me a video link. Watch the second one to the end, shows two frame rails side by side, pretty cool. http://www.youtube.com/user/OTGPLLC
How will the crinkled bends hold up in a collision? I've always been told thats a no-no. You could add fillers to smooth and strengthen them, but then, would that make any difference?
This one kinda surprised me. I'd always thought the same thing, so I tested it. We have a 1 1/2 square die for our bender here at work, so I built a 45deg miter cut section and bent one at 45. I built a simple fixture to use the bender hydraulics to crush them lengthwise (close the "V"). The bent section stood up a little better than the welded one. I didn't have a gauge on the power supply, I was just listening to how fast the air-over unit was popping. Most of the strength is in the beam section, which really doesn't get distorted that much, and the bend radius spreads the load over a longer area than the welded joint. BTW, the weld didn't fail, the tube just puckered up on both sides of the joint. I still don't like the look of that type of bend, though. Just my $.02...
My next project of this type I'm going with some of the bends that Welder Series has to offer, a MUCH cleaner bend is the result although you do a little welding in the process, there is no stretched stress on the outside of the curve.
Art Morrison makes some nice looking, mandrel bent, rect. tubes. Appears he sells short sections, also.
I wouldn't run too far with that, Shane. The test wasn't very scientific, and as they say on TV, "Your results many vary."! Just surprised me because I'd always thought the crinkled bend was a LOT weaker...
Here at Baileigh, we have heard from both sides of the fence. Some of our customers think it is not a good thing and it is a weak bend. Others say it makes it a little stronger, kind of like an I-beam. It was nice to hear from someone who actually tried both and gave honest feedback.
Now if you guys over at Baileigh could come up with a inner mandrel for wrinkle free bends we will have something !
Shane, will the MB-350 bend 2"x3"x.120"? I've held off getting 2"x3" tooling for my RDB-350 because I was concerned about wrinkling in the bend area (whether or not it results in a weaker bend, it just doesn't look good) as well as the large bend radii, but if my MB-350 will handle 2"x3"x.120" then that would be a much better solution. Hank
Shane, Why don't YOU do some testing and then you can tell US? You're trying to sell some gear and that's OK especially if it's the kind of gear Rod builders need. But if you're serious about it why not provide the specs to tell us how strong it is rather than rely on anecdotal evidence from others. I'm hardly going to spend that kind of money on the scientific testing done by exwestracer (no offence). Some sort of back up by the manufacturer would speak volumes. Just my opinion of course. Pete
This was posted in another forum, I thought I should post it here to coninue the thread. Shane Hello everyone, We are the company who made the video showing the 2x3 rectangular bending. (On the Ground Performance) Just to let you know we have modified the clamp section if the tooling to hold the tube via a separate clamp like a large hydraulic bender would have other than we have to manualy clamp the material to hold it in place as the RMD machine is not designed for that type of clamping system. We have removed the "Hook Arm" to shorten the distance between bends to be able to bend more complex parts, The tooling works great with 2x3 .120 pickeld in oil material with the weld seam on the 3" side. When you are bending materials with corners it always best to have the welded seam as close to a corner as possible and also to be on the opposite side of the tangent point. We have been testing the empty bending of 2x3 for quite a few years now and we have the material flowing the best we ever had with the higher quality domestic 2x3 picked in oil material. It has a much higher tensile strength than the hot rolled as well as being more consistent and cleaner. When cold bending any material you work harden the material at the bend point as well as past the bending area, that is why the bend material will always hold up over a mitered and welded seam. The rectangular bending that we do leaves no wrinkels on the outside walls, if the material starts to wrinkle you do not have sufficient work hardening in the bend area and that results in a weaker bend. The falacy of a bent structure being weaker is just that, given the overall design is satisfactory the bent areas will actually increase the overall strength of the component. For more info vist our website tech section, we are constanly updating more bending, welding and forming information to help the industry. Thanks OTGP http://www.onthegroundperformance.com/
no bending required. <object width="425" height="344"> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Gr00BTvNa6Q&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object>
wow, thanks for all the props! I just saw this thread. A feature that hasn't been mentioned... our curves are 3/16" steel on all four sides. Check the wall thickness of other curves on the market, then imagine that getting stretched 90 degrees. We're in the early stages of working with a local builder to make model A frames using these curves for the kick ups and rear crossmember... should be sweet!
I just got off of the phone with a guy who wants to bend 2" x 3" x 3/16 wall ractangle the hard way for frame rails on our RDB-350 bender. He asked if the machine will handle it...... .....the answer is yes, no problem.
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