Although I now use a Eaton Leonard mainly and occasionally a Pines for our mandrel bending, for small shop useage I really like the Hossfeld. I used one for years and built cars that won the Baja 1000 with it so I can't complain. I like the Hoss better than the J2 personally. Ercolina's are also killer
I have sold just about every tube bender on the market and am quite knowledgeable about benders. Anything you want to know about tube benders, tube bending on any bender out there....just ask away.
I would love to put power to one of my Hossfeld benders................Anyone done this?? Did you make it yourself or buy the Hossfeld kit?
I see a lot of posts on many forums about tube benders and no one ever mentions the chopper builders handbook. They have plans to build your own hossfeld style bender, jd2, and their own basic bender. I built theirs and it cost me about $50 in materials and it was designed around the jd2 dies, but the pro-tools die I bought works just fine in it and was a little cheaper. There is a wealth of information about working with tubing over there and since the site is about building your own chopper I wouldn't think it would be too off topic.
Nobody mentioned the mandrel type hydraulic benders that leave nothing but a nice smooth bend, great for making headers. Rotary draw mandrel bending provides the highest quality bent component with a smooth, aesthetically pleasing appearance while maintaining the full diameter of the tube throughout the bend area.
if you have access to a mill there are some very nice blueprints for sale for a hydraulic bender, the prints are pretty cheap.... wouldnt cost to much to build it and its a heavy built floor model bender... heres a link to the prints, i'm not advertising for this place or whatever, i did buy the prints, just to have them.. they are extremely professional, and one could easily build the bender from these prints, the prints offer a manual style bottle jack type setup and also for a air-over hydraulic setup.... http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm i have a pro-tools 105 bender that i have had for years, i bought these prints to have them, would one day like to build one of these, if i ever get the time and try it myself.... heres a link to an article that a guy did on a buildup over on tbucketeers http://www.tbucketeers.com/forum/f48/home-built-tubing-bender-1186/
I have owned my JD2 model 2 bender for 17 years now and I have done thousands of bends with it. I cannot see the need for any kind of power attachment. The long handle bends 1 5/8" x .134" wall tubing with ease, and 1 3/4" chrome moly is not very hard at all.
i just picked up some material to start making an attachment for my lathe so i can cut an inside radius, nothing fancy just hand feed, and adjustable for different size tube, i want to be able to make headers, like 1-1/4" tube bent on a 3" radius, there abouts.
The Jalopy Journal
