HOME MADE TUBE BENDER

***READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING****
(You probably won't, but anyway....)
Home made tube bender made from a couple of belt pulleys and scrap steel.
Doesn't look like much but works just fine.
Build cost $10.
I didn't NEED to make this tube bender.
I didn't NEED to bend tube.
I saw a video of a home made tube bender and thought I'd make one just for the sake of it,
It will only bend aluminium tubing.
It won't do large diameter tubing.
You can buy proper tube benders cheap.
This was just a bit of fun.
I have only bent 2 pieces of tubing so far using this contraption.
The one shown in the video and one before that.
Hope that helps.

[@roybofmn]

That's cool. I worked in an oil refinery as an instrument mechanic for 29 years and used just about every tubing bender known. Now I'm retired and really got a kick out of this... You're a cool dude. Thanks

[@irondmax]

i have been bending metal for 25 years, this thing you built , kicks butt

[@hellsbaby127]

Nice one, I'm glad people like you can invent and show your ideas, so many things now days are mass produced and thrown away, it's just great to see creative people.

[@bbcisrubbish]

This is inspiring. The adjusting screw is a helpful tip. I do some tube bending but in very small sizes, 1/4", 3/16", 1/8" etc. Thanks for the posting.

[@steamsearcher]

Aluminum as well difficult without crushing. Lovely thanks. Different pulley sizes make different bends. David.

[@mahaloamerica]

Really great idea. I'm going to make one to use in my shop on a piece of plywood so I can mark it with common bend graduations and radius lengths. Heck, my HVAC service guy buddies and I would use this sucker on commercial jobsites, The lay out for most bends would be a snap and we rarely us anything other than 1/2 or 3/4 EMT. If you need an offset or odd bend pull out your foot bender. Having one tool dosen't mean you can't use other tools on the same job.

[@spentacle]

Use what you've got. Brilliant. Only bit I would have done differently would be to take the bar across the pulley and get 4 welds instead of 2

[@iancraig1951]

Well done young fellar--no flies on you can't even see where they have been..

[@paulypisspants7340]

thats pretty slick - i've used car belt pulleys to bend tubing too, but my rig was much more , uh, primitive... and your choice of music isnt terrible either - didnt even think about muting it... good job

[@CharlesStruble]

Personally, I like it and can see real uses for it. Thanks man.

[@DrWh0sY]

It you want to make a pipe bender for exhaust pipes you will be better of making on where the former is still and the arm pulls round and adjustable so you can put pressure onto the pipe as you bend it or you will get wrinkles on the iner side of the pipe. You will also need to load the pipe to stop it collapsing. This can be done with sand packed into the pipe and sealed to stop it falling out when bunding, or you can fill the pipe with water and freeze it.

[@doctom-wp5bf]

I guess that tool would even handle copper or brass pipe. Good idea! Need to try that...

[@hairyalien]

All I did was replace one of the pulleys with a bigger one, weld the pulley assembley on to the large square tube, weld a small piece of tube on to the large pulley to hold the piece I'm bending, and also weld on the blue square tube as a "stopper".

[@hairyalien]

If you want to bend thicker steel rod/bar, look for a large belt pulley off an old compressor or similar. I have made a couple of them and they will bend 12mm round bar easy. ;) Any V-belt pulley is great for bending round bar.

[@mabariabdul4445]

hairyalien

[@DrWh0sY]

P.s. minimum recomended bend radius. The root radius of the bend should be 2 and a half times the diameter of the pipe you are bending. I.e If you bend a 2" pipe the root radius of the bend should be a minimum of 5"

[@danielmartinez-cj5di]

That is one tool I should weld up with my everlast welder. That would come in really handy.

[@Migman77]

Great job,I've got two pully's that I'm going to use. And this made a good demonstration on how i can build mine. Thank you for posting this.

[@tyggerjai]

“Because by learning how to make things that you can buy, you learn the skills necessary to make things that can’t be bought.” - Barry Young, Machinist Instructor, Bates Technical College.

[@hairyalien]

@sidekickfever1 Thanks mate! I was surprised myself how well it works. There were a few failed (and more complicated) attempts before this one, but as always - simplicity is the key. .

[@civicsr2cool]

nice! I was building one the other day and had a couple pulleys in my hand until I found the rope section and got some round style pulleys to cup the pipe a bit better. good stuff!

[@luvstruck2733]

I like it, Good job. Now you can make your own radical bicycle chopper with a small engine on it.

[@hairyalien]

@andTO86 Not sure mate. Found it in a bin at the local scrapyard. I think I replaced one of the pulleys as well. Pretty sure the large one wasn't on there originally.

[@katana2665]

^Yep, I see this is an old video. Very effective. Since you have welding capability, you might consider re-welding the bending bar so that you can get a full 180 degree bend. Looks great though.

[@technojoe8]

Awesome Job! I would have never thought to do that. Now you got the wheels in my head turning,

[@ronhawkins469]

nice one ,the pulleys you could get from the scrap yard,from scrap engines

[@m1ssour1redneck]

I'll try to get it posted this week. Tryin to get in what little bit of bow season I can.

[@geraldc3654]

you did a good job on bending tubing and yes for fun -- if main pulley had 3 different size pulleys stacked and small pulley was on a vertical rod the length of stacked pulleys then more than one size tubing could be bent with same tool. It will bent copper and some steel tubing also. Tubing must fit inside of pulley walls closely are tubing will be flat

[@XXplaythegamesXX]

i did it the same like you.great stuff.i used it now nearly every day !!!!!

[@josesanchezhernandez6078]

FRIEDHELM ERNST ESSER

[@jonryan391]

that's a great little tool. I might weld something up with my powertig welder but use a bottle jack to power it

[@TheFrameoff]

If you made the handle removable, you could reposition it and make tighter bends... just a thought

[@paack3]

Great design, I got to make one, I think one can find the pulleys that have round beds.

[@hairyalien]

@preprodigy It was just an idea I had and wanted to try it to see if it worked. I've built many things over the years "Just for the sake of it" as I enjoy tinkering. It might get used one day, but so far it's only bent the pipe in the video and one before that. But it may well get used for something else one day. For steel pipe though, you'll need something bigger and stronger. .

[@karlalton3170]

So simple but great idea 👍 well done bro 🤘🤘🤘🤘

[@GasserGlass]

Cool.... I made one similar to this one 20 years ago...... Great Video!

[@ulisesbosquez]

muy simple, ajustable al tamaño del tubo. Me parece excelente.

[@rlholt48]

Quick copper bender, good idea!

[@rp4489]

One more thing the radius on Holosclaw Handy Gear Benders is only 4" for one inch od tube can bend stainless best bend ever built for the price.

[@733835]

Great bit of inventivness, brilliant.

[@sebastianadams8771]

Congratulations on your 1 millionth youtube view! Its a great project for my PowerIMIG welder. I may need to beef things up as I want to bend copper.

[@goldieom123]

That is a great idea . Good job. I wonder if some motorcycle, go cart or wagon rims could be used and then bend larger pipe . It would take some leverage but maybe work . I enjoy making tools .

[@uncledodge9396]

Quite clever, I'll have to copy this.

[@haatzyponde2254]

simple, working, cheap.. what if it would be 3 or 4 times larger tube.. what kinda pulleys maybe then?

[@grikor1]

OK I read it as instructed but I am going to say what I was going to say before reading. Cool and there must be some 63 funny people around.

The best. Very simple and a very good job.

[@jpatter123]

pretty cool! Would be good for someone who just needs to put bends in conduit.

[@wood4me]

Good stuff. Gave me a good idea of how I might build one. Yours should easily also bend annealed copper tube. You did not need to build it, but so what? Enjoy the success of your project. Cheers

[@hairyalien]

ARC/stick welder. My welding has improved a lot since then...

[@DougHanchard]

Nice, simple and easy to use. I can imagine that the same principles of using dual pulley's could be easily duplicated for bigger sizes (diameters) by having aluminum pulley's machined at any CNC shop for fairly low cost (in aluminum). The cross plate would have multiple holes spanning the width. I like the simple thread rod to adjust and fine tune width. Very nice.

[@LukeTheJoker]

Smart thinking! Luke.

[@hairyalien]

Aaaah well hello Mr. Luke!

[@thfmovieshd8646]

LukeTheJoker No b. The

[@thfmovieshd8646]

LukeTheJoker 7. kik hi

[@frankmmiii]

Nice job! Doing it because you can, Priceless. Keep it up.

[@kemahp]

Great job, but I confess, a little envious I am already.

[@danielmartinez-cj5di]

That would be a useful tool for me to make with my everlast welder.

[@Asylumescapee69]

In other words, collect free "trash" materials and re-forge them into basic shapes using sunlight and machines you build yourself with stone. Tailor your simple and light weight systems for microhomes on trailers. Work with a welder and a carpenter to construct nomad domiciles that work by power of sunlight forever. I'm the carpenter/electrician/engineer. Where's my metal workers? Together I can show you how we will work with stone. We could sell something important to NASA. Talk to me people.

[@hairyalien]

Oh I couldn't care less. I posted this a few years ago to show some of my friends overseas, and now it's got almost 400 000 views.

[@MrTrescojones]

Awesome, thanks for the upload.Could be really useful for non standard sizes etc. Anyone who hasnt had to innovate sometimes hasnt tried to do anything much

[@hairyalien]

Hi, it's a tune I made a few years ago. You'll find the full version on my channel page. It's called "In Your Dreams". Cheers.

[@denstump4590]

Cool. I got lot's of tools and scrap iron and junk cars, I can build something like that.

[@hairyalien]

If you wanna bend steel pipe you'd be better off looking at some of the relate videos on the right. I don't know much either :) This was just an idea that popped in to my head and I made it just for the sake of making it.

[@hairyalien]

Thanks! My welding has improved a lot since. :)

[@rp4489]

Good job your a inventor, what USA needs. you can also find cast iron old wheels that bit stronger used old chain pulleys. For years I you gear type called Holsclaw hand gear tube benders they work great for tubing wall up to 0.085 come in all sizes up to 1-1/8" od tube find used on ebay.

[@glambert25]

love homemade stuff like this , thanks for sharing

[@Bigfoot109]

Great idea, simple design, easy & effective, thumbs up from me...........

[@m1ssour1redneck]

I'm gonna try and make a pipe bender for exhaust pipe. Hopefully will get an upload; before I get any stupid comments I built a lathe as well. All out of scrap so yes it can be done and why buy what I can build for free.

[@gortnewton4765]

Nice job. Cheap useful tube bender.

[@ramosel]

Ahhhah! you just went to all that trouble so you could make a video and throw in the subliminal "Bender" at the end. Nice tool to have around. I'll have to save this idea for a rainy day project.

[@slowgynman1234.]

I'm more into women !

[@yommi1970]

fastfreddy3000 Who doesn´t, hu? :)

[@slowgynman1234.]

You mean huu doesn't what , not ?

[@jojotiger55]

Great job! I build most everything from leftovers.

[@TVTruther]

idler pulley and ac pulley..smart.

[@kai23430]

nicely done! maybe you can add some scales to add precision feature. Good job!

[@GOW3epic]

Good job dude! Oh and FL Rocks I use it for techno :) Also you can put LED's in the tubes and make small street lights. Anyway good job

[@ircimager]

there are tools premade to bend that size tubing, that are common in the electrical industry

[@hairyalien]

Read the description

[@TheGearhead327350]

yeah Id like to see that bender and lathe too

[@rdhem2]

Don't give up. Keep the brain working. Nothing at all wrong with it, and I have commercial benders up to 6" sch 40 and still watched it. But your welding looks like mine!!!!!!!!! That need a little work!!!!!

[@MrTarkus007]

nice stuff my hat's off to you my friend very nice i wish you could show how you built it for people who are not so ?????? well you know lol................ two thumbs up

[@RicOrnelas]

Were the pulleys from a car air conditioning unit. Regardless keep it up. Worth watching!

[@hairyalien]

My welding has improved a lot since making this. :)

[@Z32orDIe]

ill give you credit for your ingenuity however if simplicity is key then for that sized pipe (something that could be bent bare handed if it werent for the pipe kinking) then id say a basic foot bender is ideal for this application anything thin walled from half inch up to 1" is easy with a foot bender its the ridgid pipe thats tough i would like to se this bender handle that, then i will be impressed. just seems like more effort then its worth. its cool though.

[@omarfarsha5886]

Nice project. Time to get out the powerarc welder!

[@TIMEtoRIDE900]

Get some iron conduit and pack full of sand, then see if it bends without kinking. I built some custom bikes that way.

[@Hermanvogel]

Why didn't he just get a used Conduit bender? They bend easier, you can make offset bends and most all of them come with instruction. Good job though, I would have never thought of using V-Belt pullies,,,nice.

[@hairyalien]

Thanks. I like to tinker and make stuff. Check out my other vids of home made RC cars. :)

[@7467277]

Ha Ha... Fruity Loops 10 W/ DMII mixer - Scratchin' all night long!!! Daybreak come, I'm makin' dat bender! StayPImpiN'

[@hairyalien]

@chamblizi Schematics? Haha, does this look like something I made a drawing for? Just some pieces of scrap I had laying around.

[@rkbyrd4432]

Nice. Bender at the end is a nice touch, too. :-)

[@rajkumarkewat3821]

total

[@chuckbear1961]

Good use of old scrap automotive pulleys & adjusting bracket. You probily have $0 in the parts cost

[@altamiralvesramos4198]

muito criativo,faz um video de como fazer a drobadeira passo a passo obrigado aguardo resposta...

[@kommodorez24]

Excellent bro!! you`re right, simplicity i the key! very nice done men, it does the work! Did you bend an aluminium tube?

[@hoanglehuy7660]

cái này chỉ dùng uốn ống típ thôi bạn ơi, dày nhất cũng khoảng 1,5mm

[@hoangtien123hp]

thế có thể uốn ống mỏng nhất bao nhiu hả bạn

[@hairyalien]

@kommodorez24 Yes that was aluminium tubing.

[@hairyalien]

@SpeedyChevy72 That is correct. .

[@hairyalien]

1) About 20mm dia. 2) 2-3mm I think.

[@ewat766]

I was hoping to see you bending square tube.Any thoughts on if it would work to bend 1 1/8" square tubing,or any thoughts on how to build one that will.I'm getting desperate trying to find someone that can bend some sq tubing for me for a rail for my pontoon.I don't guess I can post pics so I can't show you what I need bent, but it is a corner panel for my pontoon.I lost one of my rails.It has a bend around the front corner then a bend in the same rail from the top to the deck. Hard to explain

[@boblayton7434]

The pulley gizmo must be from a riding mower

[@hairyalien]

Dunno mate, just a random GIF. Try Googling "Animated skull GIF" or something.

[@PENTADACTYLON]

Good but... with reverse design you will work in the side out

[@hairyalien]

@Asylumescapee69 It cost me roughly $10 for the parts and I built it just for fun. I had an idea and wanted to see if it worked. I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say in your messages but you're clearly missing the point of this video.

[@gregoryscottsr]

We's always learnin cousin

[@chambliziOfficialChannel]

hey do you have any schamat8ics to make it for bending bigger pipe like 4 inches max?

[@iwantosavemoney]

nice build

[@bobbuilder8707]

Cool. I've been looking for projects to weld up with my new welder. picked up an everlast welder just today and am stoked! any other projects you got?

[@ezygong]

That is nifty. I like!