Talk:Vote to buy tube bender
Thanks for proposing this vote. I have been asking for about a year now to include a proper bender into the shop for fabrication purposes. I agree that we need one and that it will be a very well used tool. I have done a lot of research into benders in the past and have use many over my fabrication years.
While the bender proposed here is very strong and capable of making straightline bends, I feel that it would be limited in production aspects concerning bend repeatability, complex/multi-direction bends, and size/degree of bends. A machine like the one proposed is mainly designed to bend the pipe in 1 place. If you need to bend over a length of tube (like a gradual curve over 4ft of tubing) this bender would require you to stop and reset the bend every couple minutes. Also, with it being a air driven hydraulic bender, it will be pretty noisy and may disrupt others around.
My suggestion is to go with a proper tubing "roller". They are of very simple concept, can fit a wide range of materials (round tube, square tube, flat bar, angle iron, etc), you can get them manual or powered and they can be adjusted "mid-bend" on the fly, or can be used to make a very shallow bend over several feet of pipe. Also, you can start the bend, then move the pipe "mid-bend" to create and complex multi-axis bend. The cost of these benders are going to be roughly the same, however, I believe that this will give a much greater versatility to the shop vs the bender proposed.
I have looked for the benders that I think would best fit the needs of the shop. My personal suggestion would be the Baileigh R-M10. It looks to be the best value for the money being spent.
These all perform the same function, but they achieve it differently. Again pay attention to size and shipping. In this category, I believe that a manually operated bender would be safest. They are very simple design and easy to repair if needed.
http://www.baileigh.com/manual-roll-bender-r-m10
http://www.southern-tool.com/store/woodwardfab-wftr5-tube-roller.php
http://www.swagoffroad.com/SWAG-Tubing-Roller-HULK_p_89.html