tube bending with harbor freight!?!
- Thread starter N-Smooth
- Start date
rustybronco
Flat Land Offroader
- Location
- Illinois
That would be me then!
My rig is totally built with schedule 40 bent by yours truly with a good ol' HF bright orange bender. That includes the cage, bumpers, and engine and tranny cable. It looks very good, is well thought out, and is very strong. But I'm probably biased. I wouldn't be afraid of hitting the wall at 100. I grew up in a drag racing family, and yeah, I know what I'm doing. And no, we don't build go fast cars out of pipe. But pipe is plenty good enough for a rock crawler. Until I see a pipe cage properly built fail, (and I know mine won't) I'm not changing. It's all in design and your welding.
Wanker Delux
The Other Greg
- Location
- Too Far North
my $0.02:
Just use the DOM tube, it IS stronger, and if designed properly, will never fail.
as far as access to a bender, you have some options:
1. Dish out the cash to buy one and learn to bend stuff on your own.
2. Find somebody who already has one and knows his stuff to do the bending for you.
Personaly, I would suggest the second option, it would cost less and be less headache than trying to do it yourself. The only drawback is that you have to design the entire cage before any fabracation begins.
I seem to racall somebody above offering to do the bending for you...
Just use the DOM tube, it IS stronger, and if designed properly, will never fail.
as far as access to a bender, you have some options:
1. Dish out the cash to buy one and learn to bend stuff on your own.
2. Find somebody who already has one and knows his stuff to do the bending for you.
Personaly, I would suggest the second option, it would cost less and be less headache than trying to do it yourself. The only drawback is that you have to design the entire cage before any fabracation begins.
I seem to racall somebody above offering to do the bending for you...
rustybronco
Flat Land Offroader
- Location
- Illinois
Oh, and forgot to mention, wish I had a JD2!
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
JD2 has dies for Tube AND Pipe. Thanks Muleskinner, I was beginning to second guess myself. My opinion is that pipe is very durable under constant bashing and is very useful for rocker gaurds, link material(sleeved over DOM) and other oft bashed places. I still wouldn't use it for the main cage structure for two reasons:#1 It tends to tear up dies fast,#2 I have read that when it does fail, it can splinter, where DOM will just crush and deform.
Last edited:
- Location
- Grantsville, Utah
oh yeah, I still wouldn't use the HF bender.
muleskinner
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Enoch, UT
When I was deciding which to use, I used up 20+ feet of pipe in a hydraulic bender, just to see if I could get it to fail. I bent it with the seam in every possible direction and I bent it 180 deg. on all bends, with zero failure. I have heard/read the seams split, the pipe splinters, its not as strong, bla bla fawking bla. Until I tried it I didn't know what to believe. I think 98% of the posts on this topic are just things people heard or read from some idiot, who heard it from his best friends uncles buddy. I believe that DOM is better than HREW or pipe, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use pipe if DOM isn’t in your budget. (HREW IMO is about like good exhaust pipe. light weight, but bends and caves easily) If you don't mind re-doing your cage after flopping or rolling I'd say use HREW. (And I’ve never been whacked in the head, because my cage has always held up )
)
muleskinner
Well-Known Member
- Location
- Enoch, UT
I agree, I still have one I bought about 8 years ago. I used it once and it sucks. The bender I used on my cage, bumpers sliders etc. was a killer conduit bender. (about $6000)
The cage in my Cherokee is the only thing on it that I didn't build. Why? Cause it was basically free, service for service trade... and I didn't have the proper bender to do the job and I wanted it done right. Sometimes you gotta swallow your pride.
I've built everything else on my jeep including the axles & gearing, suspension setup design and links, steering, crossmembers, bumpers, and the list goes on... So I know about the pride thing. Having an experienced person build you a safety cage isn't that big of a pride hurt, expecially when they have the equiment to build it in a matter of hours.
Back on topic... I'm in favor of DOM tubing, but I've seen extremely well built sch 40 (& 80?) cages. I guess it is all about structure and triangulation. Anyways...
i understand what you mean about swallowing my pride, but i will just have to make sure it is a good cage now won't I! i am all about building it, sure i will have my friends help me and some of them have more experience in caging than me. it will be a good cage.
nate
nate