Going to Buy a Roll Cage Tubing Bender (Page 1 of 2)

NASA's CCR states: "The center radius of the bends may not be less than three (3) times the outside diameter of the roll cage tubing."

I think this is a good starting point.

As for benders,  we use a ProTools one shot air over hydraulic hb302. http://www.pro-tools.com

We use the Lowbuck notcher, http://www.lowbucktools.com.  They say it can fish mouth in 6 seconds...don't believe them...it takes me at least 30 seconds.  It isn't cheap, but it will last a life time...we've been using ours for 20 years.

So, if using 1.75" OD tubing, the radius must be no less than 1.75*3 or 5.25" or greater.  It looks like the smallest radius they sell is a 5.5" for that tube diameter, so that should be fine.  Wider radius would potentially be stronger, but harder to fit into the chassis.  Trade Off.

Anyone have experience with the lowbuck hydraulic bender?  I was vacillating between that one and the JD Squared, but have not read anything about the Williams (LB) model.

That's the scary bit...I've got at least 2 more potential Lemons cars (The Corvair and an unnamed *secret* car) sitting at home.

Depending how well my first cage turns out, how much I like doing it, etc, I may offer my services to others, too.

Oh, and being able to do our own cages and knowing that we are going to pass tech brings piece of mind.  Knowing that every bend/weld/plate was done right...

I've heard because the dies in this type of bender are only 90 degrees total that they will only do a 75 degree bend.  I've never used one, anyone with expirence?  The 90 degree dies for other higher end benders are actually 110 degrees, just something to think about when shopping for a bender for roll cages.

I have a greenleee conduit bender, works fine for Lemons cages. can do 90's and 1 3/4 tubing no problem. Little time consuming. But will get the job done cheap. Got mine on ebay for 230.00 it a stand up model. manual works great.

Thats a conduit bender...  not a tubing bender... please don't use it on race car tube.

My team was in the same position as yours a couple months ago, we went the JD2 Model 3 route and couldn't be happier!  Build quality is awesome, works like a charm, and unlike Greenlee "conduit benders" the bends are clean and ripple free.  We went with the 1.5" die x 4.5" bend radius.

At work I've done a bit of notching with drill presses and crappy handhelds setups, not okay for cage building.  I guarantee you'll be doing enough notching to make a quality tool worth the time savings, not to mention the material wasted with bad notches.  We went with the JD2 Notchmaster and a cheap, bi-metal hole saw.  Lots of cutting oil and it works like a dream.  Again, overbuilt but so easy to use!

My dad taught me very young, buy GOOD tools and you won't regret it!  Now every car I look at is a possible Lemons car, being able to BYO cage does that to you... 

In my opinion, notchers are unnecessary.  I've done plenty of tube fitment with a plasma cutter and a grinder.  It's confusing at first but you get the hang of it.

I've always found that the real tricky bit is getting the length right on tubes that need to be notched on BOTH ends.  That's to say, it's harder to find the right placement for the notch than it is to get the notch shaped correctly.

But hey, that's just me.

After swinging the 4 foot handle on a couple roll bars, I think Lemony hydraulic conversions are fantastic.  I used an 8 ton jack from the local import tool emporium and some steel plate from the scrap bins at a friend's shop to build mine.  The jack has a manual handle and a built in an air over oil pump

I've had a TUBESHARK for 15 years now, great machine and it folds up and stashes in the corner . Great company had a couple things break and they warranties it .

I used my buddies JD model 4 with him at his shop and would definitely a replacement if something ever happen to TUBESHARK .

Definitely invest in good tubing notcher I had a $50 harbour freight for years then got a Protools notcher is great notcher . It's mounted on a piece of flat steel welded to tubing and then dropped it in a 5 gallon bucket with concrete. All  the shavings Fall in bucket and its portable..

Also get the bend tech pro  software makes bending easier.