How to bend square tubing?

I was wondering how would I go about making a bend in a piece of 2x2" square tube? I would like to bend an arc in it to use for a rear crossmember in my A. Maybe use a torch and a wet rag and shrink the back side real slow, kinda like metalshapes split bones on his roadster?
-Jesse

 

I watched a budy do this the other day while building some ornimentle iron work...
1. Build a wooden buck with the radius that you are looking to achive.
2. Fill tube with sand and seal each end (he just used duct tape)
3. Clamp one end to the buck.
4. heat area closet to the clamp till red hot with a torch and start bending, working your way down the line until the tube matches the radius of the buck.
5. Depending on the leangth of the tube you are bending, or as you start to get to the end of the tube and you do not have enough leverage to get enough pressure to bend it down, you can slip a pice of pipe over the end and use it for more leverage.
the bend came out really nice and did'nt kink on the inside, looked like a mandrel bend. Good luck!

 

The two ways I know of... tubing bender with some dies. Or cutting slots in it relatively close together bend it to where ya want it then weld it back up.

I have done neither... but those are the two I've seen...

 

You can make a cut with a band saw down the middle... do it from both ends of the tube and leave about a 1" part in the middle (so the cuts dont' touch).

If the part needs to be two feet long, make it four so you have a little leverage.

Then make a buck the shape you want it to be, heat it up and bend one half at a time over the buck.

Weld back together, grind the welds down and you're done.

I used this method to do some 1" square and it worked great.

Happy bending!

Sam!

 

Thanks guys, I'm gonna look for someone with a mandrel bender first then I'll do the cut heat and weld.
-Jesse