Manky Monkey Motors

Bought a pipe bender and finally had a play with it. Bottle jack type. Top quality Chinese ;) Cheap and nasty. Not impressed >:(  Yes i know, no one held a gun to my head and made me buy it.
 Any chance someone could post some close up photo's to give me an idea what bend quality can be achieved with this type of pipe bender (Thats bottle jack type, not cheap Chinese) :D 
        Many thanks.

Ours is a Clarkes I think. Nothing special at all. 80 quid brand new from Machine Mart. We use 4mm wall thickness ERW & it seems to bend without any major problems. Have a look at the various frame building threads, Rainbow's new trike project, Flap's trike, Ska man's new trike frame etc for some idea of what we're doing, or go to the frame building bits in the Motors, 3 Wheels, Trike Tech section.

Just nipping out to the garage for a few hours. Back later.  ;)

Might sound like a daft question, but does your pipe bender work laid down or must it be upright?

Laid down -it's got 4 rubber feet on the underside that lift the main body clear of the ground. Mind you, it'd work just as well upright if you prefer to work that way.

You can see from those photos that we've actually managed to bend the 8mm thick base plate of the bender!

Hairy Monsta.

Have a look at www.geocities.com/reliantman2002 and go to the tube bending page.
I also have a Machine Mart Clarke bender, which as you said is not brilliant, but has done the job.
I am no expert, and made a lot of mistakes the first few times, but like anything else in life all it takes is practice.

Decide which end you are going to start with, either front or back, obviously, and make sure you take all your measurements from that end.
If you are using chalk or tipex, measure off where you want your first bend, mark it off and then measure to the next bend you want, marking the centre of the radius with the tipex/chalk/ whatever.
If you stick to the same measurements both side you should be ok. 

The main thing to remember is which side you are working on and not to make up two right hand lower rails like I did.

Cheers.Doug

Yup, been there, done that! I've been using Tippex pens for marking tube for years & recommend them as a workshop tip. If your bends don't quite match it is possible to put the tube back in the bender & carefully tweak it a little more. Easier to under bend it & do it again than over do it & have to cut another length.
Sorry Reliantman, haven't checked your link yet, but assume you mention somewhere using two strips of metal, held together with a nut & bolt as an angle form? Set them to the bend you need, lay on top of the bender frame & pull the tube round till it lines up with them.
Also remember that most tube has some inherent flex & will spring back slightly when you release the pressure of the bender. Only practice will tell you how much you need to over bend it to compensate for this.

Cheers for the info fellas :) I think the problem is with the quality, not type of equipment. Nothing lines up >:(

 It won't work laid flat either >:(  I'm taking it back next week!

Yes , I do use a angle dangler. I recently bought a much bigger angle finder/slide rule thingy from B&Q.
It is meant to help with finding and cutting angles in kitchen work tops, and has been a great help with setting up my ruler device. Only cost a couple of quid.
That bender really looks crap does'nt it? If you Look for Blackjacks Fiesta wheel hub bender on the Chopperbuilderuk forum, I am sure you would see how easy it is. He explains a lot about tube bending as well.
 

It's worth checking out your local Lidl supermarket. I picked up a digital level and angle finder for £22.50 Works well and measures in 0.1 degree steps. Very useful for setting your bends and check your frame symmetry.

Ooh, that's a proper manky bender isn't it! Makes our stuff look really professional!