exhaust bender

[ponch37300]

Hi guys, I'm thinking about purchasing an exhaust bender. The only one I've seen before is the bendpak. I was doing some searching and saw that there is all kinds of them out there to choose from. Can anyone give some advice on which bender to det for exhaust work and maybe the occasional turbo pipes? I've looked at the mandrel benders which seem nice but also read that mandrel bending actually decreases the wall thickness of the pipe, which probably doesn't matter for exhaust. So if you had to pick an exhaust bender which one would you pick? Thanks for your help, Scott

[myistar]

I would only be interested in a Mandrel Bender, so it doesn't distort the tubing at the bends, and leaves it all free flowing. i'm sure they cost more, but it's worth it. That's what is in demand for performance applications as you probably know. You would also be able to get the word out locally that you have mandrel bending capabilities and more that likely make some of you money back that you've spent.

[ponch37300]

The mandrels are nice but pricey. Anyone have experience with the bendpak type or similar that use a ram up top? How much do they distort the pipe? From what I've seen most of the exhaust shops use this type where I live.

[Frank Motoweld]

The mandrels are nice but pricey. Anyone have experience with the bendpak type or similar that use a ram up top? How much do they distort the pipe? From what I've seen most of the exhaust shops use this type where I live.

I dont know how soon you need make you decision,but on their own they do crush the tube a fair bit.However the reason i'm telling you this is that as winter will come soon enough,when i put my Guzzi in for storage i'll make a new ss exhaust for it.I'll be using the same bender but with the ss tube sand packed.I can the take jpgs and send them to you,Frank

[ponch37300]

So a bender like this one distorts the pipe a lot?
bendpak exhaust.jpg

This is what I see in most exhaust shops around here but I don't have much experience with these at all. Does anyone have some pics of pipe bent with a machine like this one? Thanks, Scott

[FusionKing]

I used to have a muffler shop. I also used my bender for things other than exhaust. The thicker the pipe the less the distorsion. The bigger the radius the less the distorsion as well.
I made a couple of very nice stock car cages with mine.... made some headers as well.
Done tons of exhaust systems.
Are you going into the exhaust biz??

It has been long enuff since I done this I would not dare to give machine advise other than make sure you only get smooth dies and not the ones with the big wrinkles in them.
BTW Bend-Pak is good stuff and has been around for a long time. The resale would be a good thing to consider as well. If I could afford it that would be my choice along with at least some 3" dies as well and 4" sure couldn't hurt either for that matter.
I loved doing exhaust. I left it because I was leasing a turn key biz and the owners were a bunch of crooks.
Good luck

[jackalope]

Ponch,

You need to go over to the offroadfabnet.com site and post this question in the benders section. Cris, from 20/20 SS and creator of all BendTech software knows the skinny on pretty much all machines related to bending.

Grant

[Checkered Flag]

I can't say enough good things about the RMD bender I have, but it was not cheap at all.

However over the last couple years it has paid for itself many times over and always produces nice results.

A comparable unit today is approx 11k. Fortunatly I got mine back before the chopper TV shows made the price jump sky high..

[rixtrix1]

Turbo's or any high performance exhaust system need smooth bends with as little distortion as possible to enhance flow without turbulance. Regular exhaust benders "crushbend" tubing which will result in a very weak spot if used in rollbar/cages, and lots of turbulance in exhaust. Heck , wet sand and a torch will work, but I wouldn't recommend it. Get the best bender you can for the type of most precise work you plan on doing, and the quality on the everyday jobs will make your work a standout product( any you can charge m
more for it). Once the word gets out that you can do the good stuff. It'll be worth spending the extra $$$. Don't "cheap down" if you plan on doing any performance work. Bendpaks are for daily driver, will rust out again, exhaust systems only, IMO

RicG

[SunGuy]

Can anyone give some advice on which bender to det for exhaust work and maybe the occasional turbo pipes? I've looked at the mandrel benders which seem nice but also read that mandrel bending actually decreases the wall thickness of the pipe, which probably doesn't matter for exhaust. So if you had to pick an exhaust bender which one would you pick? Thanks for your help, Scott

Exhaust work ... any pipe bender will do!

Turbo pipes ... you're now looking to mandrel benders!

If you're looking to make an exhaust for the average owner, any pipe bender will do because they are looking for a cheap exhaust system. They are not going to show it off. If you're looking to add flowmasters to the average car, any pipe bender will do.

If you're looking to do high performance automotive, good luck trying to sell a turbo pipe kit with crush bends or an exhaust system with crush bends.

Are you planing to go into large production or just one customer at a time? If you're planning to do one off or small batch at a time, it's cheaper to buy mandrel bend pipes and fab it up.

If I had to buy a bender for my shop, it would be the one below @ $80,000!

http://www.hinesbending.com/mandrel-...nes-300NC.html

But I would rather spend that amount of money on something else, like my Dynapack chassis dyno.