No but I'm thinking I should this weekend to see how it works.
Stay tuned I may need you advice!. Lol
Matt

I got involved in some upgrades to a homebuilt cage a number of years ago, was supposed to be 4130 and had been certified as such, and it was an older car then. The tubing in that car was unbelievably hard and I had the same issue. Was terrible to work on. Don't know what it was, but it wasn't Cond "N" 4130.

This is one of the better threads in awhile! Thanks for sharing ideas and to others thanks for entertaining me.

I too have a JD2 bender mounted on a square tube drop in receiver that we use for a number of other tools also. Just another mounting idea.

I am a electrician and bend alot of conduit. Most of the time with a Greenlee 882 hyd. bender, I found that Mittlers shoes also fit the 882 bender and make very nice bends in thin moly tube, with no drama.

So, are you saying I can just use a couple of uprights from the frame to the dash level, have a dash cross brace, and then attach from the main hoop to the cross brace in line with the uprights? Is that legal? Never thought of that. Would you have a pic of this setup for clarification? Thanks, Monte.

Just A Dart. That's another great idea. I can weld up a mounting perch on the receiver of my truck. Wouldn't have to drill holes in the garage floor or worry about having enough room. Just have to make sure I don't do what my kid did to my truck with the couch that didn't quite fit in the bed. Ya-da, ya-da, ya-da... I can get a new rear sliding window for $250 installed.

The Fabricator series on You Tube is very helpful, the guy lays things out clearly and breaks it down well. I've been seriously thinking about getting a bender for myself and since need and finances are a ways off, I'll be soaking up as much as I can and ignore the

Skeptic: That's the videos I've been watching. I like his ideas for the cheater tubes used for measuring.

Of course it's legal. There is nothing that says the A-pillar bars have to be one piece from main hoop, down by dash and to floor, with dash bar welded between those. Some do it that way, some run halo bars, just depends on the car. What I have done on some cars with stock firewalls, is actually weld the dash bar to the back of firewall and in between plates in the front jamb area. This gets the dash bar forward and out of the way. The lower supports weld to bottom of dash bar and can go straight down, angle back, just wherever they need to. Then the A-pillar bar comes from hoop, down through dash and lands on dash bar. Eliminates some bends and makes it much easier.........Hard to tell, but pic below MAY be done like that. If not, just imagine this dash bar welded in first and the others coming to it. This way you put the dash bar wherever you WANT it, not where it is convenient to weld it between bars when done the other way

you guys would laugh yourselves silly at my bender. due to my particular circumstances, and since i have modest fab skills, i built my bender using a couple of those cheapy plans you see offered in different places. after studying those plans and looking at several pro benders both in person and picture form, it took me a couple of months to come up with a workable tool that fit my needs and did a great job. i made a 1 3/4" and a 1 5/8" set of dies as well. the bends came out perfect with no dimples or crush, and that surprised me because i had to guess on the clearances needed to free the tube after bending. i only had one project to do [my 33 dodge humpback panel] and it was just mild steel, so it worked as intended and wasn't that hard to use even with just a 16ton, long ram bottle jack as power. since that time, i experimented with adapting my dies to smaller diameter tube sizes using the spacer method shown, and that worked well also. at my age, i won't be building cages for a living, although from time to time, this contraption is broke out to make a couple of pickup push bars and a riding tractor head bar. worked good for those projects as well. a "muscle" machine might be ok for a one time project, but if a guy was thinking to bend tube on a regular basis, a "power adder" supplement would be the only way to fly, as well as several of other previously mentioned must have features.

Photo of the dash bar/A pillar bar area that was asked about. Legal as long as proper tube sizes are used. This is addressed in Note V.8 in the SFI 25.4 spec if that's the one you have.

Thanks for the link!
Very helpful!

Quicktree gave me a great deal on his Pro-Tool tubing bender. Has 5 dies from 1" up to 1 3/4", software and a tubing notcher. Really top notch looking stuff and Made in USA. Now to set it up and start playing. Thanks again, Quicktree.

OK. What do you guys use for lube? Is there some equivalent that I can get at Lowes or Napa instead of ordering from Pro-Tools?

I just used cheap wheel bearing grease with a
brush

Thanks, Mr P. That's what I was thinking, but wasn't sure. The old stuff on the dies seems pretty slick and tacky. Seems like it would be a PITA for cleanup.

I had a 16" length of 1 5/8" C/M floating around. Marked it off in 1" intervals. Put it in the bender. It was a pretty good amount of effort, but nothing terrible or unexpected. I'm guessing the high heat outside helped cause a high amount of spring back. Right at 6 degrees. I found that I need a 3 1/2" lead for bending. The V in the pic is where the bend started compared to the very front of the tube, which is what is held in place by the clamp. Also found out that 16" is not enough for a 90 degree bend. Going to land closer to 18-19" when all said and done. Cleaned the rust off of some of my old bars to try bending them for a comparison, then I found out that the majority of my Comp Engineering cage was 1 3/4" tubing. Didn't feel like cleaning any more tubing, just to bend it.

no problem, glad it will get some use. I think I bent maybe 3-4 bends with it. good luck with your build.

that's what I used, that is whats on the die, just been setting up for a while.

I hope you mean lube just the pins, instructions on my JD 32 said to never use lubricants on the forming dies groove, the tube will tend to slip backwards if used.

don't know nothing about the JD 32, I watched a friend who has bending tube for a long time he used grease on the die. mine never slipped.