Free 186 More Best Homemade Tools eBook:  
Get 2,000+ tool plans, full site access, and more.

User Tag List

Page 1 of 2 1 2 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 18

Thread: Homemade manual square tube bender

  1. #1
    Supporting Member Tuomas's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Location
    Jyväskylä Finland
    Posts
    832
    Thanks
    558
    Thanked 1,834 Times in 507 Posts

    Tuomas's Tools

    Homemade manual square tube bender

    This is my homemade manual square tube bender:



    Makes 0-90 degree bends to 25mm ( 1" )- 30mm square tubes.
    Bending radius is 50mm ( 2" )

    Way that i used for making die, works with round tubes / pipes too.

    Tool:
    Homemade manual square tube bender-2.jpg

    Result:
    Homemade manual square tube bender-1.jpgHomemade manual square tube bender-3.jpg

    Fast to use, and somewhat easy and cheap to make.

    Die is made from 10mm and 4mm plate.
    Arm for the bender made from 50mm x 10mm flat bar and 20mm axle
    Body of the bender is 5mm plate and 50 x 50 x 5mm square tube.

    186 More Best Homemade Tools eBook

  2. The Following 16 Users Say Thank You to Tuomas For This Useful Post:

    carloski (Jul 1, 2022), Frontier Forge (Dec 19, 2018), high-side (Dec 17, 2018), johncg (May 6, 2021), Jon (Dec 16, 2018), KustomsbyKent (Mar 14, 2019), LMMasterMariner (Dec 16, 2018), mecschnell (Aug 22, 2022), Paul Jones (Dec 15, 2018), Scotsman Hosie (Apr 27, 2019), stuffucanmake (Dec 16, 2018), Tenn (Mar 12, 2019), thevillageinn (Dec 24, 2018), Tooler2 (Jul 12, 2021), Trojan Horse (Jun 3, 2019), verticalmurph (Nov 27, 2021)

  3. #2
    Supporting Member Frank S's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Peacock TX
    Posts
    11,172
    Thanks
    1,970
    Thanked 8,760 Times in 4,192 Posts

    Frank S's Tools
    nice little sq tube bender now you just need a better mount but you knew that.
    When I first saw your die stack I was thinking that you might have the center plate a little large in diameter but after seeing the tight radius it looks just about right.
    For my hydraulic Hossfeld that I used to have I made a double die for 1" sq tube so I could bend 2 pieces at a time with a 1.75 outside bend radius I machined my die out of a single solid piece of stock with the center ribs at 1/3 the cross section of the tube. it worked great for over 10,000 bends

    2000 Tool Plans
    Never try to tell me it can't be done
    When I have to paint I use KBS products

  4. #3
    Supporting Member Tuomas's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Location
    Jyväskylä Finland
    Posts
    832
    Thanks
    558
    Thanked 1,834 Times in 507 Posts

    Tuomas's Tools
    Quote Originally Posted by Frank S View Post
    nice little sq tube bender now you just need a better mount but you knew that.
    When I first saw your die stack I was thinking that you might have the center plate a little large in diameter but after seeing the tight radius it looks just about right.
    For my hydraulic Hossfeld that I used to have I made a double die for 1" sq tube so I could bend 2 pieces at a time with a 1.75 outside bend radius I machined my die out of a single solid piece of stock with the center ribs at 1/3 the cross section of the tube. it worked great for over 10,000 bends
    Thank you Frank!

    Because it was easy to re-shape center plate of the die.
    I grinded half of it to 55mm dia. 90 degree bend needs only 180 degree from the die, so now i can use that same die for making bends with two different "slot" depths. (55mm and 60mm dia. / 5mm or 10mm deep slot )

    Homemade manual square tube bender-1.jpg Homemade manual square tube bender-2.jpg

    Comparison:

    Left is with the larger dia / deeper slot.


    Homemade manual square tube bender-3.jpg

    Right is with the larger dia / deeper slot. ( my opinion is that right one is little smoother ?)

    Homemade manual square tube bender-4.jpg

    I failed to get sharp picture from that side. Sorry
    Upper one is with the deeper slot.

    Homemade manual square tube bender-5.jpg

    Deeper slot reguires more power to be used during bending, but result is maybe little smoother,
    caliber says that max widht of the bend tube is 30mm ( with 25mm tube).
    When using shallow slot, max widht is 32mm.

    Also it "feels" that bend made with the deeper slot handles more weight before it starts to bend in use.
    ( when used as in shelf bracket for example )

    But i tested that just by pressing and bending them with my hands against the floor, so i can't say for sure.

    So, difference's are somewhat minimal, maybe i'll find out after couple hundreds of bends is there any big difference.

    One thing is sure, that square tube bend like this, handles more weight than mitered and weld joint, before it starts to bend.
    Also bending is much faster procedure, and gives similar results every time.

  5. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Tuomas For This Useful Post:

    PJs (Dec 17, 2018), Scotsman Hosie (Apr 27, 2019), tenncf (Sep 6, 2020)

  6. #4
    stuffucanmake's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2018
    Location
    South Africa
    Posts
    19
    Thanks
    40
    Thanked 15 Times in 6 Posts

    stuffucanmake's Tools
    This is a great solution!!

  7. #5

    Join Date
    Nov 2018
    Posts
    3
    Thanks
    0
    Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
    That's a great bender. Nice work.

    Keith

  8. #6
    Supporting Member Tuomas's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Location
    Jyväskylä Finland
    Posts
    832
    Thanks
    558
    Thanked 1,834 Times in 507 Posts

    Tuomas's Tools
    Quote Originally Posted by stuffucanmake View Post
    This is a great solution!!
    Thanks buddy! Im going to try another change for the die today.
    To see if it makes noticeable change for the result...

  9. #7
    Supporting Member Tuomas's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Location
    Jyväskylä Finland
    Posts
    832
    Thanks
    558
    Thanked 1,834 Times in 507 Posts

    Tuomas's Tools
    Quote Originally Posted by kburk View Post
    That's a great bender. Nice work.

    Keith
    Thank you very much!

  10. #8
    Content Editor
    Supporting Member
    DIYer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    3,057
    Thanks
    771
    Thanked 1,850 Times in 1,652 Posts


    Thanks Tuomas! We've added your Bender to our Metalworking category,
    as well as to your builder page: Tuomas's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:




  11. #9
    Supporting Member Tuomas's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Location
    Jyväskylä Finland
    Posts
    832
    Thanks
    558
    Thanked 1,834 Times in 507 Posts

    Tuomas's Tools

    Arrow Testing... testing..

    And here is the final improvements / tests.

    I made another set of " side support plates ".

    Now i used 75mm radius, originally those we're made using 65mm radius.
    Also i welded curves from the 1,5mm plate to the edges, to get gap between supports and tube smaller.

    Homemade manual square tube bender-1.jpg Homemade manual square tube bender-2.jpg

    Now internal widht of the die, when bending 25mm x 25mm ( 1" ) square tubing, is 27mm.

    I made test bends with the new supports using both slot depths, 5mm and 10mm.

    Homemade manual square tube bender-3.jpg

    From the left.

    Shallow slot, with original support plates... Deeper slot with original support plates...
    Shallow slot with new support plates... Deeper slot with new support plates.

    There is no huge difference.
    But deeper slot with new, wider support plates, gives smoother results and stays closer to original dimensions, than others.


    Measured thickness from the radius side is 20mm and widht 27mm, also shape stays similar from the whole bent area.

    Homemade manual square tube bender-4.jpg

    Because deeper slots gives best results, here is the comparison between them.
    Left is with the wider support, right is with the original one
    .

    Also, it feels that deeper slot with wider support is also easiest to bend..
    But reason can also be just that i founded better way to use my body for pressing than first times.

    Thanks for checking this out.

  12. The Following User Says Thank You to Tuomas For This Useful Post:

    Scotsman Hosie (Apr 27, 2019)

  13. #10
    Supporting Member Frank S's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Peacock TX
    Posts
    11,172
    Thanks
    1,970
    Thanked 8,760 Times in 4,192 Posts

    Frank S's Tools
    Are you noticing any flex in the side plates or are they staying tight against the center die.
    Never try to tell me it can't be done
    When I have to paint I use KBS products

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •