Gareth0123
You'll need 16 pigs to do the job in one sitting!
- Messages
- 1,559
- Location
- Norwich, Norfolk, UK
A few of you already know that I have been involved in a conversation regarding the Centre Line Radius (CLR) of bends in 1" tubing. This conversation turned towards the benders themselves, and to a degree what I use and what I do.
I mentioned that I have a JD squared Model 3 bender, and although the dies and followers are expensive, the bends that they produce are of very high quality with very little waisting (narrowing) of the tube in the actual radius of the bends and that is why good quality bending dies and followers are not cheap!
My JD Squared Model 3 provides very good bends which make up the form and function in the steel tubing fabrications that I produce. Some of these fabrications are very diverse and some verge upon the totally obscure. N.B. Camel saddle and pack frames, Mule and Pony pack frames, Llama and Alpaca pack frames and Elephant howdah frames... ... ... Yes, I really do make and export these items around the world from my small workshop and one man operation here in Norwich.
What I call a generic tube/pipe bending kit came up in this conversation: What I mean by generic is that this tube/bending kit is made in the far east and to a price, and here in the UK and the USA several suppliers are buying these in, probably by the container load and affixing their Names, their branding, and their logos to them and then knocking them out possibly by the cart loads to the punters.
Although this "generic" tube/bending kit is available from a lot of sources, under a lot of brands and in several different colours the actual parts of the kit are identical across the lot of them, and in this case I will name but only two of them.... there are many more. So I shall name Harbor Freight in the USA, and Baileigh here in the UK as a suppliers of these kits, and as I said there are many more supplying this exact same kit.
I purchased my "generic" tube/pipe bending kit directly from Baileigh UK because of a perceived good reputation that company had. One of my previous employers had a couple of the large powered Baileigh benders in the fab shop, and so even though I had never dealt with them directly myself before, I had this perception that they were an OK company: How wrong I was!
The quality of the bender kit delivered to me was diabolical. Now, I originally come from the Agricultural Engineering trade (Cripps, Burgess, Ernest Does), so when I say that something is diabolical it usually a factor of 5 or even 10 more diabolical than it is for the rest of you mere mortals.
I bought my bender a couple of years or so ago from Baileigh, but I have a farmer friend, a cousin and a mate who have all bought the same generic bender kit over the last 6 months from 3 different suppliers and under three different brands, and all three of them are experiencing the same problems that I did.
Anyway, don't believe a single word of what I have said above, see for yourself in these videos of the problems I personally experienced in the two or three days after my bender kit was delivered.... ... ... and these exact same problems have been repeated and experienced by the people I know who have bought the same generic bending kit, so that means that mine was not just a Friday afternoon made one.
Introduction
1/2" (0.5 inch) 16 gauge ERW Mild Steel Tube
5/8" (0.625 inch) 16 gauge ERW Mild Steel Tube
3/4" (0.75 inch) 16 gauge ERW Mild Steel Tube
7/8" (0.875 inch) 14 gauge ERW Mild Steel Tube
I mentioned that I have a JD squared Model 3 bender, and although the dies and followers are expensive, the bends that they produce are of very high quality with very little waisting (narrowing) of the tube in the actual radius of the bends and that is why good quality bending dies and followers are not cheap!
My JD Squared Model 3 provides very good bends which make up the form and function in the steel tubing fabrications that I produce. Some of these fabrications are very diverse and some verge upon the totally obscure. N.B. Camel saddle and pack frames, Mule and Pony pack frames, Llama and Alpaca pack frames and Elephant howdah frames... ... ... Yes, I really do make and export these items around the world from my small workshop and one man operation here in Norwich.
What I call a generic tube/pipe bending kit came up in this conversation: What I mean by generic is that this tube/bending kit is made in the far east and to a price, and here in the UK and the USA several suppliers are buying these in, probably by the container load and affixing their Names, their branding, and their logos to them and then knocking them out possibly by the cart loads to the punters.
Although this "generic" tube/bending kit is available from a lot of sources, under a lot of brands and in several different colours the actual parts of the kit are identical across the lot of them, and in this case I will name but only two of them.... there are many more. So I shall name Harbor Freight in the USA, and Baileigh here in the UK as a suppliers of these kits, and as I said there are many more supplying this exact same kit.
I purchased my "generic" tube/pipe bending kit directly from Baileigh UK because of a perceived good reputation that company had. One of my previous employers had a couple of the large powered Baileigh benders in the fab shop, and so even though I had never dealt with them directly myself before, I had this perception that they were an OK company: How wrong I was!
The quality of the bender kit delivered to me was diabolical. Now, I originally come from the Agricultural Engineering trade (Cripps, Burgess, Ernest Does), so when I say that something is diabolical it usually a factor of 5 or even 10 more diabolical than it is for the rest of you mere mortals.
I bought my bender a couple of years or so ago from Baileigh, but I have a farmer friend, a cousin and a mate who have all bought the same generic bender kit over the last 6 months from 3 different suppliers and under three different brands, and all three of them are experiencing the same problems that I did.
Anyway, don't believe a single word of what I have said above, see for yourself in these videos of the problems I personally experienced in the two or three days after my bender kit was delivered.... ... ... and these exact same problems have been repeated and experienced by the people I know who have bought the same generic bending kit, so that means that mine was not just a Friday afternoon made one.
Introduction
1/2" (0.5 inch) 16 gauge ERW Mild Steel Tube
5/8" (0.625 inch) 16 gauge ERW Mild Steel Tube
3/4" (0.75 inch) 16 gauge ERW Mild Steel Tube
7/8" (0.875 inch) 14 gauge ERW Mild Steel Tube
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