Manky Monkey Motors

got meself a new pipe bender today,any one tell me how it works,doh.how much oil to put in and how i get it in .shabba.

No oil in it? What sort of bender have you got?

   my guess would be hydraulic ;)
   
   I think most of the Clarke type units are shipped dry, there may be a small rubber bung on the main body, if so stand it upright on it's base, remove the bung and fill 'till it reaches that level, ie. just starts to run out of the bung hole. Important to do it standing up rather than laying down (the machine, not you) refit the bung and try it. What sort of oil ? buggered if I know, mine must be running at least 50% auto trans fluid by now, it always seems to be on the front of the shelf when the ram needs topping up. 

Suitable Hydraulic fluid can be purchased at Halfords.

great ,so now i know what kind and how much oil to put in ,how the hell do i use it,what are all the holes for,ive figured out which die to use ,the pipe ive got is to big for the smallest die but a little bit loose in the next one up ,is this ok.

The holes define the bend angles if that helps

I was going to direct you to the tube bending page on my site, but it looks like Geocities is off line.
I will try again asap.

thanks for that people, ill get some scrap pipe and have a mess about.

Our Clarkes bender came ready oiled & I've never checked it since -doesn't seem to leak & works just fine. Using the holes nearer the centre of the bender will produce a tighter bend, but depending on the tube wall thickness you're using, it may struggle. Moving the rollers out will produce a softer bend with less stress on the tube. I usually use the middle setting.

Same here. I have had mine for years and it's been brill.
Sorry I can't send you to my site, but it seems to have vanished. Could be because I hav'nt been on there for some time.

Perhaps you're just a figmant of our collective imaginations?

thanks for the info people .

Who said that?

wasnt me

I have just managed to get onto my own site at last.

http://www.geocities.com/reliantman2002/

and goto Tube bending.

If it helps I found that I needed to drill extra holes in my Clarke pipe-kinker to let me jiggle the bends 'off-centre' where that is what I needed. These also worked for 'unbending' a bit. Cutting some pieces of flat timber to slip in each side of your pipe will help to keep it 'straight' in relation to the bender sides and so keep your bend 'flat'. None if this is needed if you have a 'proper' bender!

Hello Peeps...............
Can sosmeone please tell me how I can get a double bend in pipe and keep it 'flat'. Ive tried a couple of times and the pipe ends up 'twisted' its really trying my 'patience' ;D ;D
Seriously though I could do with some advice on this one please. I tried to go to the sites suggested by Doug, but it comes up with 'page error 404'.
What I want to do is put one bend of 60 degrees one way then a second of 60 degrees the other but keep the pipe flat without the ends lifting up or dropping down. I hope that I've explained it clearly, I know what I mean.
Thanks Guys
Regards
K

I know what you mean K. All I can suggest is marking a line down the length of the tube before you start & making sure it's central in the former for each bend. We don't use more than one bend in any section of our frames, (the bottom tubes are done in 2 parts with the joint slugged & button welded), so don't get that problem. Had a slight rise on one side of a pair of handlebars I made once, which was easily cured with a little heat & a gentle tweak in the vice.

Thanks Mankster, I have made double bends by making them seperately then joining with inserts and button and circumference welds but would really like to be able to do double bends in one piece.
I'll try marking lines on the pipe and see what happens........unless anyone has any other ideas.
Thanks
Regards
k

   when we used to have our bender mounted on the bench so that it bent horizontally, we had a degree wheel that was held in the tube end by an expanding bolt. The pointer was a length of welding rod attached to a little wooden block. As long as the wheel didn't move we could get same plane bends easily and, with a bit of thought, multi plane bends left and right handed.

Hello Brock, Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant 10/10, well done sir.
It's so simple is'nt it, when you know how.
Thanks for that, I'm going to give it a go during the next week or two and I'll let you know how I get on.
Regards
K

   I don't know about brilliant, just what we came up with. A little tip would be to mount your pointer at 90 degrees to horizontal, pointing sideways not up, that way it can be anywhere on the table not just directly under the tube, set it to bender centre line and it will do for any size tube. Good luck,

           

Bloody good advice as usual. I have been looking at these little laser level things and wondering if one or two could be fixed to the bender.
My mate bought three brand new ones for a fiver at a car boot recently, jammy git.