Harbor Freight Tubing Roller

[Sonora Iron]

I realize they do two different things! I was just stating there is a gap; it would be nice to have box tubing “roller” that could roll a circle smaller than 12-inches without a segmented look. I don’t see why you couldn’t roll a piece of 1/8-inch round stock in a rig roller and tack it in the center of the upper roller of the tubing roller, and do the same thing as the AZ bender. As AZ had stated you have to force the wall of the box tube inside it’s self to achieve a smooth radius.

[Chuck U&R]

Sonora Iron -

Here's some rings for you -

http://www.kingmetals.com/Default.as...=899*Rings*0@@

[crawdaddy]

That the Eastwood model sells for around four times as much and IMO some of Eastwoods stuff is also of marginal quality and probably made in China also,for a couple hundred bucks seems like the H.F. is worth it just for a try out. I am probably going to get one myself just to check it out. Not too much to lose but a couple hundred bucks if it doesnt work out .Mike

[Chuck U&R]

crawdaddy -

I agree with you - Eastwood, Northern and others seem to carry a lot of the same tools as HF they just charge more !

I bought the HF bender for bending arches for arbors, trellises gate and fence tops etc.




I made these adjustable dies to roll square and rectangular tubing.

I wasn't concerned about the bearings in the two lower rollers but I may drill the axle and add a zirk fitting so smooth things out.



The bottom piece is 1/2" 16g, middle is 3/4" 16g and the top is 1" 14g.

The 1" 14g was tuff to bend I'm hoping 1" 16g will be easier.

[Jack Olsen]

Chuck, how do I talk you into making a second set of those dies?

[Chuck U&R]

I would be embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to make those dies.

I have a 12x36 HF lathe that I bought from a company that bought HF returns.

For someone with a CNC lathe it would be a piece of cake.

[FusionKing]

I have been watching this thread all the while thinking I would also like to give this a whirl.
Today I blasted down to Springfield and picked one up! $139 is simply unreal when you look this thing over.
I have been considering the Pro-Tools model for like $1100. And others that run $3000+.
I got it out of the box and checked it out...it is already assembled. I am not gonna say a whole lot because I have not used it but my first impression is the quality is unreal for the price. I bought the square die set along with it.
Picked up an air riveter and a few sanding belts as well.
I cannot help but feel this tool could be a must have for most people unless there is something fundamentally wrong that I am not yet aware of...I'll know soon enuff.
I seems to be much better than any of the "pipe" benders they have.

[cc51]

Bought one this week. Had a quick gate job to do. Roller worked outstanding! I tried to roll 3/4 square in the round rollers (even though I knew better) all it did was twist. I had to fab up a flat roller for the top position. Worked flawlessly.

[Sonora Iron]

Beautiful gate cc51!
I have a roller with the box tube dies in transit, should be here this week. I’m curious to see how long the flat spot is? Then wondering if I can weld the ends of the material together, and reinsert the material back in the roller to work the flat spot out to form a perfect circle? Not that I need a perfect circle for any foreseeable projects, just want the ability to make them.

[FusionKing]

Virtually every tube roller of that nature (that costs several times more) says right on their info that it will not do a circle.
I'm not saying they won't just passing on what they say.
As far as the flat spot goes you simply tug the tube outside of the machine and roll it past aways (farther than the flat spot x 2) and then cut it on both ends, re-align them, and weld them together.
Wait untill you read their directions!! They are horrible. They contradict themselves and are just plain FOS on the capability. Which causes people to try to do things that just plain out is not gonna happen.
This machine is for long radius bends...like 10 foot radius's...not 10 inches like they say in the "manual"
I am sitting with the "manual" in front of me and it says you can bend:

1" tube on a 5" radius
1 1/2" tube on a 7 1/2" radius
2" tube on a 10" radius

They lay this on you right after telling you that you cannot bend tube larger than 1 1/4"

They also tell you the rollers are 4" in diameter which is the smallest diameter you can make with this tool.

If this were possible everyone would sell their benders and run to Harbor Freight because this would be the end-all of all benders ever made were this capability possible. Literally a "pipe dream"

Now using it in the realm of realizing it is a low dollar version of this sort of machine it offers a good value for what you pay and in capable hands could turn out some decent work... altho not perfect or identical without MUCH practice.