For the money, the JD2 is hard to beat. We used one for years and it's very repeatable. DO pay the extra for hydraulics. The hand bender will kill you. Want to step up to a really "nice" top of the line bender, look into a "Tube Shark". This is a really good bender for repeatable if you are building multiples of anything. Probably too costly for one time car bender, but it is a really nice one. Love mine............BUT a JD2 is a grand or so with one set of dies and a Tube Shark is 3K. If you go JD2, opt for the 180 dies

I bent my first moly chassis without the hyd unit...
took me about 1 hour per bend... damn near killed me
using that ratchet type set up.. but lucky it was a
altered for my brother.... made him come over and help
pull on the arm... as soon as we got done with one side
I ordered the air over hyd unit

One other big advantage to putting hydraulics on it. Our machine is mounted on a portable stand with wheels. The base is wide and the heavy motor and tank are mounted low. The thing is dead stable, even with a long piece hanging from it. Not using it? Roll it out of the way instead of having it bolted down in the way. Depending on what you are doing, you need plenty of clear space around the machine. Being moveable is a big advantage. Plus, we can pull a 90 in 1.675x.083 4130 in about 20 seconds if you're in a hurry.

Try trick tools. We got ours there.
http://www.trick-tools.com/

2 big advantages of Hydraulics is you can keep it mobile and the bender its self can rotate rather than swinging a 20' stick of tubing across the shop! 2nd one is it is much easier to sneak up on perfect bend say matching a protractor. When doing it manually you end up bending too far most of the time trying to judge the spring back...

Yes you did and thank you!
Matt

Y'all are wimps if the hand bending gets to ya, get to the gym and beef up.

stay away from the cheap crap, Pro tools makes an American made high quality piece. Can add hydraulic if you want
http://shop.pro-tools.com/products/manual-tube-and-pipe-bender-105-heavy-duty-package
I bought one a few years back and have barely used it. I have like 5 short radius 180* dies. I think from 1" up most have never been used plus a heavy duty tubing notcher. even have a chassis jig. PM me if you are interested, I'll make you a deal.

Just saw a video on the hydraulic setup. Man, that's nice. But, for now, I'm going to have to muscle it. Need the exercise, anyway. I'm probably the only person in my neighborhood that doesn't have a riding lawn mower. If for some strange reason, word gets out and everyone with a Stang or Camaro shows up at my door for a rollbar, I'll bite the bullet at that time. I'm looking forward to custom building my own cage, though. This has become a very cool project for me. Thanks, everyone.

Was it you I sold it to?.... built anything yet

A couple other things you will need is a nice tubing
notcher and I like a oscillating pedistal drum sander
to tweak in your cuts... those things make life easier
and dont buy cheap hole saws... on moly it just tears
the teeth off in one cut... JD also has notchers ....
when it comes to welding any joint.... sand both parts
first.. even before you tack them

http://www.trick-tools.com/Tube_Pipe_Bending_125
Got all the toys to go with Tube bending

when it comes to welding any joint.... sand both parts
first.. even before you tack them

Way ahead of you, Mr P. First I wash and rinse the tubing, then I sand both components. Makes for a nice clean weld. Figured that out on the cross braces for the frame.

You will wish you had the hydraulic after ONE bend

You will wish you had the hydraulic after ONE bend

Yeah. You're probably right. It will give me something else to strive for.

Thank you! Looks like a fair price also.

I've done 3 cages with my bender, all by hand. It's not THAT bad. A workout? Yes. End of the world? No. Now if you were say bending .120 wall CM, THAT is a pain... But it's not needed.

Agree, and for my entire cage I had 10 bends, not a one at 90, 4 maybe 15 degrees, everything else was straight pipe. FC cage would have a few more, but there is a lot of time between bending,fitting and tacking the pipe so you can "rest up". Its not like you're standing there bending all day long.

What did you do for the main hoop.. those are usually in
the 90* range
EDIT
As said already... if you arm strong it.. you have
to mount the bender... with hyd it can be on wheels
since the load is all applied in the bender

Nope collecting dust will all the other stuff in the garage.
Being a busy year. I'll be dead before I get anything automotive done!!!
Matt