OK, I made a rack with a friends bender today and now I want to start putting plans together for the EXO cage. I would like to run tubing around the circumference of the wheel wells. How can I make that shape with a bender? Bend a little, move the tube out a little, bend a little more, move the tube more? We do have a degree wheel but I am a total newbie at this.

Anybody got advice?

Thanks

SeanP

Never bent any tube before, but after doing lots of general fab work, would think ya need a pattern of some kind. Maybe use el cheapo electrical conduit and one of them $20 conduit benders. Bend up a rough exo, then you have something to hold up against the bender to reproduce the bends you want. Any screw ups will be a whole lot cheaper with conduit than with tube.

Just an idea, I'm sure one of the pros will chime in with the real answer.

Ken

Hey Sean,

I haven't bent anything like that yet but here is how I think it would be done. Take the total degrees that you need to bend and divide it by the total distance. Then bend it that amount every inch. Or you could double the amount and bend it every two inches. Does that make sense?

-Joel

I would start from the front of the wheel well and work your way back checking along the way. And remember it's easier to have not bent it enough and go back to the bender than it is to have bent it too far and start over. Then make sure you are writing down the amount of bends and where you started them so you can do the other side.

I know there are benders out there that will bend a circle. I think there are called radius benders. I'm not sure if a normal bender will bend a smooth radius, but good luck with it.

Craig

Thanks. Joel, when you talk about measuring the total length your mean the circumference not just point A to Point B in a straight line? I think I have this figured out.

Think my insurance company will wonder about the exo on a 97 XJ?

SeanP

Tried it once w/ our JD3 and it didn't work. Maybe you need a larger die than the standard. We tried the bend-move a little-bend -move a little method and it looke really chunky and shitty. That was the first time we tried though. :confused: