I want to buy a pipe bender for some rare pipe bending. Although if I
actually had one, I'd probably upgrade to extremely infrequently.

Mostly inch and a quarter, inch and a half light stuff with mild bends.
Handrail type stuff and if I want short radius stuff, I'd buy the component
pieces.

Would you buy the HF or El Cheapo units or spend a little more for a better
one?

Experiences, opinions, and caveats appreciated.

Steve

SteveB wrote:

I want to buy a pipe bender for some rare pipe bending. Although if I
actually had one, I'd probably upgrade to extremely infrequently.

Mostly inch and a quarter, inch and a half light stuff with mild bends.
Handrail type stuff and if I want short radius stuff, I'd buy the component
pieces.

Would you buy the HF or El Cheapo units or spend a little more for a better
one?

Experiences, opinions, and caveats appreciated.

Steve

Personally, I would start with the better of the HF units and then start
modifying and upgrading it.

SteveB wrote:
I want to buy a pipe bender for some rare pipe bending. Although if I
actually had one, I'd probably upgrade to extremely infrequently.

Mostly inch and a quarter, inch and a half light stuff with mild bends.
Handrail type stuff and if I want short radius stuff, I'd buy the component
pieces.

Would you buy the HF or El Cheapo units or spend a little more for a better
one?

Experiences, opinions, and caveats appreciated.

The HF bender that lies down flat is a very usable machine. Here you can
see some pictures of us making a very simple pipe handrail from 1-1/4":
http://www.tinyisland.com/images/Ent...ing/Index.html

I used the machine stock-standard except I took the die and very carefully
measured it and painted a thin white line on it to indicate the centerline
of the bend. I can now lay out a bend centerline on the pipe and line it
up by eye easily within 1/16", probably much closer.

BTW I paid $20 for my bender used. Lots of these show up used cheap
on craigslist.

Grant Erwin
Kirkland, Washington

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Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
.. .

The HF bender that lies down flat is a very usable machine. Here you can
see some pictures of us making a very simple pipe handrail from 1-1/4":
http://www.tinyisland.com/images/Ent...ing/Index.html

I used the machine stock-standard except I took the die and very carefully
measured it and painted a thin white line on it to indicate the centerline
of the bend. I can now lay out a bend centerline on the pipe and line it
up by eye easily within 1/16", probably much closer.

BTW I paid $20 for my bender used. Lots of these show up used cheap
on craigslist.

Grant Erwin



pretty nice work grant. i got a jb2 bender and found it's a bitch to keep
the bends in the same plane. looks like you did pretty good w/ that
(especially with such a long run!)

b.w.

William Wixon wrote:
"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
.. .

The HF bender that lies down flat is a very usable machine. Here you can
see some pictures of us making a very simple pipe handrail from 1-1/4":
http://www.tinyisland.com/images/Ent...ing/Index.html

I used the machine stock-standard except I took the die and very carefully
measured it and painted a thin white line on it to indicate the centerline
of the bend. I can now lay out a bend centerline on the pipe and line it
up by eye easily within 1/16", probably much closer.

BTW I paid $20 for my bender used. Lots of these show up used cheap
on craigslist.

Grant Erwin




pretty nice work grant. i got a jb2 bender and found it's a bitch to keep
the bends in the same plane. looks like you did pretty good w/ that
(especially with such a long run!)


Thanks, Bill. I was able to keep the bends reasonably planar by shimming up
the pipe so it was everywhere parallel to the floor. As I bent the pipe Karen
would scoot over the shims. On other railing jobs when I've done two bends
they didn't come out planar and so I had to cut the pipe in the middle
and rotate one end and weld it back up. Even that isn't too hard. - GWE

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

--Check out these guys:
http://www.vansantent.com/tube_bending_machines.htm
I bought the model 3 manual, then added my own hydraulics to it.
Very nice and best of all the die sets won't break the bank..

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : All the candidates
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : are JERKS!!
www.nmpproducts.com
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---