The only reasonably priced benders and notchers I can find are from Harbor Freight. Are these worth it? Because if I buy a cheap Harbor Freight (which may not be the best quality) I don't want it to break after 5 or 6 bends.

Is there another brand worth considering that is in the 200 dollar or less range?

 

unlesss you are running a shop i wouldnt see the need for another bender.

My buddy has a harbor freight bender and theyve fully caged a K5 and an old similar age silverado. They do kick *** work right outta their garage...

as for a notcher, just buy a drill press

 

jason rngprerunner showed me a jig that fits into your drill press and uses hole saws for a notcher, its about $200 and looks to be very well built.

only, i dont remember the link

 

i wouldnt waste the money on a HF bender. its a pipe bender not a tube bender. expect any major bends to have kinks in them

 

if this is for you cage, I wouldnt expect any bend to have more than 90 degrees. also, anything that is over 90 degrees you can just take to a muffler shop and have it mandrel bent for like a dollar a bend. :dunnno:

 

I have a pretty nice Craftsman drill press. If you can remember (or ask him) what part it was, that'd be awesome.

 

when it comes to benders so will kink the pipe and then its trashed if you want a clean slick bent pipe...

so look into that..we had a NICE one at my school so i use that one..my boss has a harbor frieght one..only used once bent some 1.25 Alum pipe for a dock..turned out great

 

i sent him a PM hopefully he will post in here, it did look like a REALLY nice jig.

 

you got a pic of the jig..if he dont reply soon send it to me if you dont mind

 

JD Squared
http://www.vansantent.com/tube_notcher.htm

I also recomend thier bender, but its definatly not in your price range..

 

I was looking at their bender before I posted this! I was thinking the plain Model 3 bender wasn't too expensive, but I might as well get the stand, so thats about $400 bucks. We'll see. If I can make cages for other people, it would be worth the cost, but I can't see doing 1 cage for that cost, then not needing it anymore.

Thanks for the link of the notcher.

 

you would definatly use it again.. think of all the sweet stuff you could do! you could make bumpers with the tubing on it, and open your own business and im sure people on this website would buy...

 

I'm willing to make axle-swap kits, but I don't know about cages and bumpers for other people. Most of that stuff (especially if I don't have access to that particular generation) I would need the truck for.

 

lol axle swap kits are gonna be a BEEEEYOTCH.

I thought about it but i wouldnt take the accountability of making a good kit...

 

Depending on how many tubes you need to fish mouth and if there are funny angles a grinder will be cheaper and faster. If your going to do alot then a drill press with a hole saw works ok but the hole saw will walk with you and dull fast. as for a bender the one we use cost about 2000 so i can't help you out there

 

HF sells a notcher of this type that a drill press or drill motor mounts on top and uses a hole saw. they charge $60 I think. It is worth it and works pretty good.

I also have the HF bender, it works OK. Ok for bumpers, spare tire stuff, but not a cage. When I build my cage for my Jeep I am buying teh JD bender.

 

Dont forget the dies are another $100+