I have a JD2 bender and need to build some 2" primary tube headers? would it be possible I know the minimum tube thickness for the die is .095 has anybody bent up some .065 with it?
thanks
Jason

I'm sure its doable but the area of the bend will be substantially smaller than a mandrel bent tube, so you would probably end up flowing less than 1 3/4" primarys.

Your much better off buying a bunch of mandrel bends off ebay or from a speed shop.

Most guys are buying the prebent mandrel elbows, cutting them and then welding them up.

.http://www.bend-tech.com/web_images/wpeC1.gif

Yea thats kinda what I had figured, but thought it might work
thanks

I've done a few 2" exhaust systems with my bender and it works ok, but for headers I would go with the J bends as stated already. It necks the tube down just enough that if you need to cut in the middle of a bend and weld to a straight section, it doesn't fit real well.

.....just don't try packing tube with sand. :shaking:

.....just don't try packing tube with sand. :shaking:

But this dude on some forum told me I could use a Harbor Freight pipe bender if I packed the tube with sand and taped the ends. :laughing: Sorry, I couldn't resist. I've heard that too many times. :shaking:

I bent .065 aluminzed with my 2" die for my cross over pipe, bent fine, came out nice. As said might not be tight enough fo a header though.

.....just don't try packing tube with sand. :shaking:

I have heard and seen, pictures on the net, that it works good for thin wall 0.035 4130 3/4" od, and also for 1" square tube. Maybe it was the tape comment? I have heard welding the ends after you put the sand in is the way to do it.

:confused:

On another note, I am building a header for my 4 stroke snowmobile. I bought mandrel bends to use. Buying bends is nice and easy, though, it is a little more expensive. I know a guy (he told me face to face) that used a nice tube bender, and it seemed to work pretty good. Note this was on around 20 degree bends maximum.

.....just don't try packing tube with sand. :shaking:Why not?

I have heard and seen, pictures on the net, that it works good for thin wall 0.035 4130 3/4" od, and also for 1" square tube. Maybe it was the tape comment? I have heard welding the ends after you put the sand in is the way to do it.


I've personally tried this on 4130 1 inch x.035 tube, including welding caps on. It doesn't work. Maybe it works with thicker wall, but .035 will kink.

The only way I've had success is with a channel style follower die like on Mittler Bros benders http://www.mittlerbros.com/tube_bender_180_hydraulic.htm . We adapted a JD2 bender to use this style of follower.

Why not?

waste of time

But this dude on some forum told me I could use a Harbor Freight pipe bender if I packed the tube with sand and taped the ends. :laughing: Sorry, I couldn't resist. I've heard that too many times. :shaking:

Actually for bends up to ~20 degrees, it works pretty well for doing exhausts. Anything beyond that, you just buy premade bends, but there are plenty of times when you need to put small bends to clear the chassis as you go back through the frame rails. Gotta pack the hell out of the sand, and use something rigid to cap the tube.


Before moving to a rotary draw bender, I did quite a bit with a HF kinker. Sand actually did help with sch 40 stuff as well, if it was packed really hard. Did several tests on scrap and found a noticible improvement with it.


No idea what it'd do on a draw bender.

Packing and welding caps works IF you do it right. Taping the ends is absurd.

It really is not worth the time/effort for most things.. but can come in handy at times.

At school before we bought a Pro Tools bender, we used one that was "home built" and supposedly required packing the tube with sand. We would weld a solid plug in one end, pack the tube with sand, then weld a tapped plug in the other end. We had a long piece of 1/2" all-thread that was threaded in and used to continually pack the sand tighter while the tube was bent. It was a HUGE pain in the ass and took forever to make a bend. It was a great day when we proved to "the powers that be" that a PT bender would handle 1.25" .049 tube without kinking.