Michael Maskalans <dml@tepidcola.com> wrote:
: jon@dakota-truck.net wrote:
:> Speaking of building buggies, why are tubing benders so blasted
:> expensive?
: Wish I knew. You saying that your H-F tubing kinker doesn't do the
: trick? =)
Nope, I kinda doubt it. :-)
: the only bent members on our car are the rear lower a-arms. everything
: else is cut, notched and welded. we couldn't get our bender to not kink
: the .035 wall. minimum spec for our die is .049 wall so that's not
: surprising.
I suppose that would be a way to go. Would look more angular
and involve more welding, but as long as it works... :-) (Well,
I suppose you could pie the inside radius to make a bend, but that
sounds too much like work.) ;-)
:> ;-) They don't seem terribly complicated except for the dies
:> themselves. Maybe they just figure that the people who need tubing
:> benders are commercial customers who are OK with paying through the
:> nose for them since they will be able to make the machine pay for
:> itself? Kinda leaves us hobbyists out in the cold though. :-(
:>
: Nah, build you own. That's what keith and I plan to try. I'll let you
: know how it works out. Haven't decided if it's worth it to try to make
: the dies too. If the baja shop or student machine shop happen to have a
: bull-nosed mill in the proper size I'm going to have to try to jig up a
: die fab. I can't get the mill bit much cheaper than the die set though
: (like $60-$80 for a 1.25" bull nose mill last I checked, plus the 1.5"
: cold rolled stock at ~$GOD, when the die set for a JD2 is around $250)
I saw a book once that showed how to make a casting furnace out of
a 5 gallon pail, and you can scale it up or down to whatever size
parts you need it for. Seems like the easiest way to make the
dies might be to build a mold and cast 'em, then polish the contact
surfaces smooth?
For the die itself, you could possibly turn it on a lathe, and I
guess for the shoes you could drill down the middle of a block with
the appropriate size bit and then saw it in half?
--
-Jon-
.-- Jon Steiger --- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com --.
| '70 Barracuda, '90 Dakota Convertible, '92 Ram 4x4, '96 Dakota |
| '96 Intruder, '96 Kolb FireFly, '99 Cherokee, '01 Ram 3500 |
`----------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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