Tools are to the hot rod hobbyist as shoes and handbags are to the fairer sex—in either case there’s no such thing as too many.
The subject of this issue’s look at tools that make our home shop fabrication chores easier are tube and pipe benders. Benders of this sort allow us the ability to easily fabricate a myriad of items from small-diameter brake and fuel lines to crossmembers, reinforcements, and even exhaust systems–all on our own. And just like the varied uses and applications for these creations, there are various types and sizes of bending apparatus as well.
The first subject is a really handy item from Summit Racing Equipment. Yep, the folks that offer the performance-minded car guy everything they need in the way of mechanical performance parts offer tools, too! The Summit tool of which I speak is a 16-ton capacity hydraulic pipe bender that’s ideal for jobs like forming tubular crossmembers, trans mounts, and exhaust systems.
The second bender we’ll take a look at is a really handy item from a company by the name of Woodward Fabrication (also found in my Summit Racing catalog). The Woodward bender is designed to make perfect bends in flat stock and is perfect for making mounting brackets and the like.
The third and fourth benders are designed for use with small diameter tubing like brake and fuel lines and come from one off my all-time favorite sources—The Eastwood Company.
The last, but by no means least, bender we’ll take a look at is a compact bar and rod bender manufactured by Pittsburgh and sold through another one of my favorite haunts—Harbor Freight Tools. So, let’s get going and take a look at this array of home shop wonders that’ll make our home shop fabrication chores much easier—and keep in mind you’ll be seeing all of these tools in action in upcoming tech stories during the course of the next year.
-
This 16-ton hydraulic bender (PN sum-907016) from Summit Racing gets a lot of use around m
-
One of the best things about Summit’s bender kit is the large selection of dies (8) that c
-
The Summit bender dies are heavy-duty cast items with a smooth face that allows minimal di
-
Another item I find indispensable in my home shop is my Woodward Fab form bender. I could
-
The Woodward form bender utilizes a 4-inch die which works in conjunction with an internal
-
The Eastwood Company is the source for these two fine small-diameter tubing benders. The t
-
This lightweight, die-cast aluminum baby bends 3⁄16, 1/4, 5⁄16 and 3⁄8-inch tubing, and ma
-
The Eastwood forming pliers make terrific tight bends that make running brake lines in tig
-
The bar and rod bender pictured here comes in pretty darned handy around the shop. I’ve us