Thanks Pepi! I've had that site bookmarked for a long time and had forgotten about it! Thanks for the reminder!
Thanks again Dave. Yea making stuff to make stuff is part of the world of fabrication I guess. It took some time to make the bender but future bends will be so quick and easy it was stupid to NOT build it...
Here are some better pics of the radius bender. Here it is, assembled, clamped on the welding table.
http://images59.fotki.com/v1579/phot...MVC016F-vi.jpg
This is one end of the top "die" if you would. The notch in the end plates clears the 1 x 2 in the lower die and lets the centerline of the tube snuggle up to the edge of the 1 x 2.
http://images49.fotki.com/v571/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
A few of the notch with the bender assembled. The round tube is centered directly over the edge of the rectangular tube.
http://images49.fotki.com/v109/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
This is a cutoff from the tunnels we made. I clamped it in the bender with a C-Clamp. I'll do a little bending with this so you can see what can be done.
http://images14.fotki.com/v218/photo...MVC011F-vi.jpg
Bending the back edge up, around the top die. This was done by hand.
http://images61.fotki.com/v439/photo...MVC013F-vi.jpg
Bending the front edge down, around the rectangular tube for a sharp corner.
http://images60.fotki.com/v224/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
This is pretty cool. I'll get a lot of use out of this dude.
http://images55.fotki.com/v268/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
It will be easy to make additional top dies also. Black pipe of any diameter will make excellant dies to bend around.
Get out and build one of these things...
Thanks for looking.
Mark