tube bender

[fabr]

I'd be glad to have 3 power packs laying around to try............................ Good to see it working out for you now.

[fastcorvairs]

So Baloo

Looking at the fourth pic down.  Will the rod from the piston interfer with the tube on the tooling. It looks to be really close at full extention.  Or is it just the angle of the camera making it look close.  See what I'm saying?

[Baloo]

I'd be glad to have 3 power packs laying around to try............................ Good to see it working out for you now.

lol, only 2 are mine and one of them only works as a  door stop so l only have one really,

[Baloo]

right l mounted up the other pump now and it all works ok except the hoses are a little short as the ports are in different positions, 

answering fastcorvairs, question its very close l stopped the ram with about 2" clearance to the die which is the max tube l think l will be bending, however there is still 3" of stroke left on the ram at this position not ideal, the sensible way to over come this would be to open up the ram and drop a 3" steel spacer in there to limit the stroke but l am not sensible
on the side of the pump is a 12v solenoid that l thought would dump the out going pressure back to the tank when 12v was applied to it, perfect l can go back to the idea of an adjustable stop that hits a switch  and be able to set an angle and repeat it time after time, if l weld a backstop on the adjustable rod then it wont be able to go full travel if l get the endstop in the right place that is,
however  l was wrong as usual, the solenoid dosent stop the ram it reduces the speed by a factor of about four, as this is an ex elevator hyd pump it might have been used to slow the lift car when it approached floor level ?  anyway l can have a 2 speed bender if nothing else lol,, perhaps a creep speed for the final few degrees,
there are some other ports with blanking plugs in them so will have a mess and see what l can make happen, if not l might go back to the idea of a remote solenoid to dump the pressure when l get to the desired angle, maybe even have 2 micro switches so as when you set and angle of 90 degrees it powers round to 80 degrees on fast and drops to a crawl for the last 10 and then stops

more tinkering for sure

[Baloo]

temptation got the better of me lol
had to have a go and see what l could bend although its not finished, l havent got the right sized pins in it etc etc,
foot pedal works fine and it starts off cleanly with the motor keeping a steady note through out the bend although l might change the moving arms,

second pic is at around 90 degrees and still plenty to go, so l did  ran out of die l bought the 120 deg ones that form to 110 degrees went past that and pinched the tube    l should have bought the 240 degree dies  shouldent l 

[fastcorvairs]

Very nice Baloo. Do you ever sleep?  And when you do sleep you must be dreaming of your next project.

[fabr]

Very nice indeed. Ya,I always buy the 240 degree ones. No need limiting ourselves...........................

[Baloo]

sleep ??   l see that as a waste of valuable time 

was thinking of recutting the moving arms like l have drawn on the pics below, only more of a nice banana shape than a kinked straight
this would give me more leverage to get the bend going if l was trying 2.5" 1/4 wall tube and it would also use up the extra 3" of travel l have on the ram as it would have to reach further on full stroke ??

 

[fabr]

Hmmmm,you never stop thinking do you? I like the idea myself. Any worries that all the arms would need be beefier to handle the loads of 2.5x.250 tube?

[Baloo]

"Hmmmm,you never stop thinking do you?"

hey that would explain why l wake up tired in the mornings    now if l could only remember what l was thinking about all night  sleep wouldn't be so wastefull   


 "I like the idea myself. Any worries that all the arms would need be beefier to handle the loads of 2.5x.250 tube?"


l have no idea if they would be strong enough but will let you know when l try it 
my lazer man can only cut up to half inch but there would be no problem doubling up the plates to make 3/4 or 1 inch and the pin size can be any size we like ( within reason )

once l have finished and refined it l will post up my dxf files if anyone wants them ?


Andy

[fabr]

Something tells me there will be interest.

[Baloo]

a little more progress

one thing l dont like is the angle the die sits at before l load the tube, this will make the tube sit at the angle of the yellow line, fine if you are only bending a 4 foot section of tube but if you were making a roll hoop then the tube might be 12 feet or more,  the angle will stop me loading the tube as the end will be hitting the ground  ,  what l need is for the die to be sitting  rotated anticlock wise so as the tube will sit like the red line, this way it dosent matter how long the tube is it can stick out across the road 
so l have been having a look at making some more plates that are rotated slightly, was also thinking of missing some of the pin holes out as l dont see me wanting to bend under 1"
made some up out of plastic to test my ideas first, lot easier to cut that steel plate










 
 

[Baloo]

l also extended the spare ram, its bent as well, guess l was had there then , its not as bad as the other and l think  l will give it a go and see how it works




made up the spacers that fit between the plates along with the 35mm pivot pins for the ram

[Hammerworks]

Theres a guy on OFN that did something similar to take the slack out of the different dia. dies. and still get full bends.He said it worked good.

Looks good Baloo.

[Baloo]

Hi Hammer

thanks

finished the steel work just about, stitched a spreader plate on the sides where the bottom ram fixing is,
finished the welding off and made a couple of shelves up, paint next then