Hey guys. Fresh from the garage we have a new toy. It works great. After hearing all the turbo guys whine about hoses popping off and needing to get it fixed it looked to be a worthy project.
The only thin walled aluminum tubing I had in the garage was 4" so it really dwarfs the gizmo and may appear smaller to you than it actually is if you think you are looking at actual IC pipe. Note that the bead is damn big and I can't see a hose popping off of that
These pics are for reference. Those of you with a lathe can make the dies. I suggest heating them until they are red hot and chunking them in used motor oil for hardening (the oil quech will increase the carbon)
The inner die has a bearing. The outer die is the drive die and is powered by a ratchet.
The two outer bolts press the bead. With the die in a good vise it is a piece of cake.
Please don't ask for measurements and minute (MY NOOT ) details.
I will make them for $80 if you need that much info.

http://scalliwag.com/bead/bead.html

 

 

Scali, you rock What will you come up with next?

 

Nice - I made a similar setup years ago. It grew legs and walked away. Wish I stile had it and too lazy to make another.

 

hey 80-cu.in.t, id like to talk to you about your intercooler. . . check your pms. .

paul

 

Thanks Other than the projects I have in process that are more longterm (housing resurfacing, slide throttle body) hopefully the next item you guys will see will be a mandrel pipe bender. The dies are way too big for me to make and will take a large lathe to turn and a really good machinist to cut the large radius's in them. That part is way beyond my skill level let alone lack of equipment. But the concept has a lot of good feedback.
Everyone I have explained it to thinks it will work and I am really sure it will as well.
Too many ideas really require me to win the lotto to jump right into unfortunately.
The mandrel bender will be pretty heavy but it will still be portable. I can mount it to a small trailer so I could take it to the local shops for making special bends.
I'd set a minimum just to show up and go from there.
Of course I would sell bends in various ranges and sizes and I would not have to take it anywhere for that.
If it got to be a headache I would just sell it

I am thinking about making some different dies for the little bead roller to make step up flanges.

 

Hell yea man, make a mandrel bender then sell that and your beader as a package deal hehe.

STEPHEN

 

The mandrel bender will be a small fortune. The dies will probably cost me $500 or more to get them made.
Picture a 12" pulley 6" wide but instead of a V-groove it would have a 180 degree radius like ( When you put the two "pulleys" edge to edge they form a circle in between them () The hole it creates has to be real close to the size of the pipe you are bending.
Now picture one pulley is stationary and the other rolls around it to create the bend.
The fixture and bearings (1" ID tapered Timken) bearings is going to be a little pricey on materials but not real bad. Then the hydraulics come into the picture.
Fortunately since my idea of play time is running around the metal scrapyard I already have hydraulics but if I was building these to sell I would have to get new hydraulics and that is pricey.
Not only that but I get bored and grumpy (old guys do that alot ) and I am pretty sure I would be over this idea after I knock it out.

But we'll see. If I could find hydraulic components that were not so costly it would be a reasonable consideration. I would have to price out and electric and hand operated version of the pump, a one way ram with about a 12" stroke. (I know a 12" stroke is short in comparison with a commercial mandrel bender but the pipe will rest on a ratchet lock mechanism that allows you to back off the hydraulic and walk the pipe around the fixture until it binds and then you press it again.
Believe it or not with this design you could roll a 360 except anything over 180 the die would have to split in half to remove it
I can one time this for relatively cheap with alot of materials I already have so only one is on the burner for now.

 

Well I did it but I did not adjust for the time off or the fact that I only have a once a week as opposed to a very active party schedule back in the day
It said I could fill up 18 bathtubs and I think it was around 60k in dollars.

 

Ahhh, I thought you meant you were working on something less "high tech" to mandrel bend some thin alum like IC pipes.

You can buy a cheap mandrel bender for small pipe like for a plumber and stuff like that. I though maybe it would be more along those lines but just for a larger pipe.

Damn, oh well haha

STEPHEN

 

Damn I need to quit opening more than one browswer at a time here. The above post was intended for the South forum pertaining to a test to see how much alcohol you consumed in your lifetime Sorry guys!

 

Unfortunately I have not figured out a lowtech way to do it. The main rule of thumb is you have to force the tube to remain round as you bend.
It may be possible to cast the dies and save some money for a production run. But for a one timer you would get a couple of huge 12" diameter/ 6" thick steel turned on a big lathe.
You really need to look at a true mandrel bender to see what it requires. $500k and even higher machines are out there.
Here is a video of what a commercial looks like in action http://www.bobsmuffler.com/mandrel.mpeg
So even a budget version can be expensive. I sure wish I had a big lathe and knew how the cut those big dies

 

I was thinking of making one of those but I was over complicating mine trying to adapt for different diameters of tubing.. I setteled for 1/16"TIG rod beads on the end of the tubes I make..

 

For something so agricultural looking it sure makes nice parts

If that bead is on a 4" pipe, won't it be too big for a 2.75" or 3" pipe? As in will the couplers even fit over it?

 

Well, theres already a bunch of these typs on the market. Look on Ebay. Also these people sell them at a reasonble price. I wouldnt waste my time with it if I were you Scali.

http://www.pro-tools.com/

 

 

You need one that has the mandrels sized for tubing. Dont use a pipe bender on tubing, it'll just collapse it.

 

You can adjust the depth with the tension bolts. Although I do recommend using a shim plate in between the two square tubes so the dies stay squared to each other.
Agricultural looking?

 

Good link Carl All the mandrel benders I have found even on Ebay that were big enough to do 3" and would not cost $800 to get the big dawgs shipped were over $5000.
But the one in this video from the link you posted is the closest to what I am thinking about. The difference is both dies are round. I did not want to complicate my description even more but the reason I want both of my dies round is because one will actually be half the size of the other. The reason is because I want to be able to make a large and a small radius.
For a large radius the smaller die would roll around the larger and just the opposite for the small radius.


http://www.pro-tools.com/video/erc.mpg

 

Yea they got some cool toys. The tube bender and the software is what Mike Van Steenburg over at www.iscracing.net uses to make roll cages.

 

I tried calling them earlier today to get pricing and I kept getting busy signals. I am really curious how much there benders are.

 

Hey Scalli-

Also take a look at jdsquared.com. I have one of their basic ones that I haven't had a chance to use yet.

 

I found their site at http://www.jd2.com They look great for roll cages but the dies only go up to 2". I hate doing cages. I always get migraines during fit up
The thing I do like about the link is I can look at the designs they use and see if I can see anything that may work better than what I have in mind.
Even their lower end model when you get a few sets of dies get pricey pretty quit.
This link is a price list and like I mentioned earlier these will only go to 2" so don't buy one if you are wanting to bend IC pipe http://www.jd2.com/M3B_Prices.htm

 

Here is a finished bead roller. I decided to cap the ends of the tubes with plate steel to help keep it from distorting when overtorqued. You can also see that I knurled the drive die and carbon quenched everything except the bearing and bolts so they are very hard now. I don't have a hardness tester but the file test looks really good.

 

Wow! Someday I'm gonna buy you that beer!