Anything welding

6.5” radius is what I have

 

I chose that cuz it was right in the middle of the 3 options that you can choose for the 1.75 diameter haha. Figured it would be best and it’s been great so far

 

Good deal. Kind of figured 6.5 would be a good choice. In the future I may be bending some aluminum tubing as well, so that should give me a little leeway that I’d need.

 

I'm greatly interested in the fabrication of the bender die. Please document the construction with many pics.

Thanks

Kirk

 

Seeing as how your in the US, if I was you, I would just buy a die from these guys. Affordable Tube Benders $150 at the time of this post, so much less hassle then I'm going through.
Apparently no one in Canada sells a die that's even remotely affordable, that's why I'm trying this.

 

Kirk is a glutton for punishment He most likely would spend 20 hours building a $20.00 part.

I can`t say I have not done the same just to say here

 

You will love it.

 

I run 6" CLR on my 1.75 and 2" dies. 4.5" CLR on my 1.5" die and 3.5" CLR on my 1.25" die. Look at the ratings for wall thickness, the tighter radius will begin to kink thin wall tube(but are you going to go that thin) however in my experience with bending I prefer the tightest radius for the material I need to bend as it usually allows parts to wrap tighter around corners when building bumpers etc.

 

@Dissent86 I was at SEMA yesterday and walked around the Miller welders booth, found they had a new 255 on display (not for welding, but plugged in) so I got to check it out and play with all the buttons on it and talk with a rep about it a bit. Really does look like a nice machine and a big step up from the 252, more like they mashed a 350P and 252 together along with a new display like the Multimatic 220. Will likely be purchasing one after the first of the year when they release to the public


Edit... looks like it's live on millers site https://www.millerwelds.com/equipment/welders/mig-gmaw/millermatic-255-mig-welder-m30174

 

I can`t see buying new machines the first year far to many bugs to get worked out.

Waiting on parts 3 weeks for a Continuum customer had the gun loose in the wire drive housing cooked it together had to drive the power pin out with a hammer

 

Took your advice. Looked at the rating and decided on the 6.5 inch CLR die for my 1.75 tube. Says I’ll be able to bend as low as .083 wall tubing. I’d think that’d get me by for a while.

Just placed the order for my JD2 bender with die and the TN100 tube notched they sell. Still need to fab up a stand and figure out how to mount it or just fork out the money for a hydraulic setup.

 

Yeah, it's a pretty sweet machine!
The offer still stands if you want to try before you buy.

 

With the support I have received from miller I am not one bit concerned.
They seem to due their due diligence before releasing a machine. They have had field test units in the field for almost a year now working out bugs.

 

You can either buy the stuff from JD2 for your hydraulic setup if you wanna spend another $1000-$1400 or you can buy the swag Offroad hydraulic ram mount and buy the 8 ton long arm ram from harbor freight that is air over hydro and hook it up to your air compressor. That route is around $250. Works great and is only a little slower than the Gucci hydraulic setup from JD2

Edit: also, as for a stand, JD2 wants about $150 I think for their pedestal stand. I went to the rems section of my local metal supplier and found a piece of 4” round 3/16” wall tubing about 4’ in length and made my stand out if that. Super cheap since it was in the rems section. Bout $15. Bought a 3/16” thick 10” round laser cut plate that they had at the shop for another $12. Then I used some scrap 2x2 tubing I had laying around to make some legs and added some casters to the bottom. Bout $60 total to make a rolling stand that works great.

 

Finalizing my aluminum 100 series bumper! All welded with my invision 352!

 

Bad asss!!!

 

@Jerneyman

Bad picture. But the only one I had on hand to show the stand for the bender

 

Adding the hydraulics allows you to mount the bender on a movable stand, correct?

The hand version needs to be bolted to the floor or something similar?

 

Exactly

 

that looks soo good!
would you care to share any dimensions? Myself and another person are looking to do the same. Already have the frame plates cut, just working on the tube bender now, After that is slider time

are they angled up at all? how much "stick out" past the body are they? total length ect..
no worries if you want to keep that to yourself. I'll understand.