Had this happen after less than 10 bends.:eek:
Broke the u-strap bar on a JD2 forming die mid bend. Sent me flying across the shop (manual set-up). The weld had absolutely no penetration. This die is a 1 3/4" x 5.5 clr.
JD was informed and made good with an air shipped replacement.:)
They said they had a bad batch of 1 3/4' and 1 5/8" dies go out and they thought they had recovered them all. I got this die at the end of February.
Both Van Sant and JD stepped up to make this situation right.:D

Not to be a smartass, but how does one check penetration of the welds without $$$ analysis or destructive testing? :confused:

Not to be a smartass, but how does one check penetration of the welds without $$$ analysis or destructive testing? :confused:
Like me, you wait 'till it fails.:laughing:

That's cool that they stood up to their product without alot of BS inbetween

A brace running from the clamp mount back to the die is a good idea to prevent this failure from happening.

The welding on my Pro Tools die on the center sleeve didn't have very good penetration either. I know because I milled out the sleeve and had a good cross section to look at. Fortunately that's not a critical weld, but the welding on the clamp arm could be similar.

What size/thickness/grade of tubing where you bending when that happened?

Same thing happened to my PT 2" die after 12 bends of .120 DOM. I just wanted to get my cage done and wasn't in the mood to call PT about it, then wait for a new die to show up. After 3 passes with the TIG turned all the way up and a 3/8" thk gusset on the back side, I was back bending tube again.

What size/thickness/grade of tubing where you bending when that happened?
1 3/4" .120 DOM

A brace running from the clamp mount back to the die is a good idea to prevent this failure from happening.

I was thinking the same thing. I will add that brace to all of my dies. My back still aches from slamming into my storage rack when it let go.:laughing:

Not to be a smartass, but how does one check penetration of the welds without $$$ analysis or destructive testing? :confused:

You dont... :D
Aside from outfits that require cert. most weld QA is a simple bend to break on 1 or 2 parts out of 100 assuming one is using a sampling approach in QA. Thats probably how the vendor knew they had a bad batch but no real idea as to how bad..

The 'typical" alternative is reliance on the welders expertise.

D.