Ian asked me one day what kind of bender we had in the Northwest CRAWL fab shop, I replied with “borrowed when we need one”. He responded with “What the hell dude? You can’t be without a bender, I’ll send you one that I have”. And he did….a Pro Tools 105 – How sweet is that?
So before you know it, we finally had a bender of our own and set out to find a permanent location to bolt it to the floor. Finding a location in the shop turned out to be harder than you would think. No matter where we put it, it was going to be in the way. We didn’t want to store it in a corner, then wrestle it around and bolt it to the floor when we needed it, then put it away when we were finished.
Like you, we need a bigger shop. There’s never enough room, and ours is the size of a large four-car garage. Rather than buy/build/rent a bigger shop, we spent $100 on some HREW and built a bender stand that we can wheel around to whatever part of the shop has room for it at the time.
If you bend tube and don’t have Bend Tech Pro software, get it. This little stand was designed in about 10 minutes. Once you’ve designed whatever you’re building, print out the materials list that contains all of the dimensions and bend locations you need, and get to work. You’ll have perfect pieces for your project every time with zero waste.
You’re probably thinking that a wheeled cart won’t work for you, because you have a manual bender. If I told you that you could convert yours to air/hydraulic for under $200 would you do it? Swag Offroad has a ram mounting kit for $99, and is designed to use a long ram, air/hydraulic jack from Harbor Freight that is $79.99. Your back will thank you, and your lunch muscle can continue to bulk up.
The SWAG ram bracket is a well thought out design with a precision fit. It fully supports the weight of the jack, and there's no sag or flex throughout the range of motion.
Our bender is SWAG equipped and works very well. Try it, you'll like it.
For more information on this SWAG bracket and other SWAG products, plug www.swagoffroad.com into your browser and check them out.
I wonder if Ian has an extra 2 post lift? Hmmmmm…….
Funny you should ask…..I do!!!! Now getting that to you might be a little bit more difficult.
Road trip?
just come over and use ours when you need one!
Well, there is a project on the tow rig coming up Dave, I’ll be in touch soon!
Larry. I’m glad we were able to help you guys out.
Stay tuned we have some very innovative products that I hope will soon be showcased on your tubing bender.
Troy
Looking forward to it Troy, and thanks!
Nice project! I will try to build one with my new bender. If you had to redo it would it be the same? What would you like to change the most on it? Does it tend to fall on the hydro cylinder side?
Ob1
So far it’s working well. With the spare dies in the lower tray, it’s not tippy at all. We built it compact for easy storage.
I’ve started buiding mine. Pics to come. Thanks for inspiration.
Note: replace the bolt at the end of the cylinder rod with a hitch pin and you’ll be able to rotate the hydro cylinder along the bender frame thus making it more compact for storage.
Great idea on the hitch pin, thanks!