Bending small-dia. pipe in a HF bender

[TNToy]

Okay. We all know that the Harbor freight bender doesn't work for large-OD stuff. That's why I borrow Dan Dibble's JD2 for that stuff. But it's on loan to Hero at the moment, to build a cage for his Dakota.

My brother in-law wants me to build him some guards for his ATV to better keep trees away from the space between the front & rear fenders where your feet live. He's broken the rear fender brackets loose on each side and I've had to re-weld them for him. They'd basically be what we'd call rocker guards if it was a truck.

So... what I want to do is basically one 45 degree and two 90 degree bends in common 3/4" threaded-end pipe from home depot. Will the HF bender do those smoothly... or does it kink small stuff too?

[DRM]

You have torches? Try heating the outside of where you want to bend a bit mor than the inside, then bend around something in the shop like a support pole. Best done by 2 people.

[Napoleon047]

i have had good luck bending small stuff in the HF bender, less visible deformation than larger stuff. since you are using pipe, the dies should fit reasonably well.

since you are using pipe that is already threaded, fill it with sand and screw on some caps if you are that worried.

[TNToy]

That's good news napoleon.

DRM - There's already an HF bender sitting in the shop, and I actually don't have a torch in there. Might as well use the bender. :)

[BrettM]

I've had very good luck with bending 1" schd 40 (1.31 od) with the HF bender to 90 degrees and even a little farther. I built my baby sister a jungle gym outta the stuff and all the bends look flawless.

[Turtle Bite]

I built a bumper with 1" schedule 40 with several 90* bends, worked good.

[pmurf1]

The problem is you're using poor quality pipe from HD. Get some from your steel supplier and it's night and day the difference. The stuff I use come in 20'
lengths, not 21' like standard black pipe. It also isn't threaded and without a tape or mic you couldn't tell it wasn't HREW.
Also for 3/4" use the second hole up from the bottom minimum. I think a lot of people put everything on the closest hole and think it will bend a tight 90, but it won't.

[jays68yak]

3/4" pipe....no kinks, you can do 90s you just gotta make sure you have the rollers not too close.