Custom tube bending proposal

ruppster

ruppster

Member
I have an idea to resolve the tube bending dilemma most of us have and I need some input from anyone interested before I do anything. I have a friend that has a bender but no 1" dies. Here's my idea; I talked to Crazy Horse this weekend about the drop loop for the workman newsboy bike. I think there's roughly 30 of you that were wanting to build a workman based board track bike. I am willing to buy a die and bend the tubing up if I can get a good prototype which crazy horse seemed ok with making. I don't want to get into notching the tubing. I just want to make a small production run at first then at a later time I will make custom stuff for anyone that wants it. If I use welded seam tubing I should be able to make them for $20-$30 each . Please give me honest input or ideas. Ruppster (Brian)
 
I think you're onto a good thing here :)
Perhaps you could offer a kit for advanced builders that includes some tube to lengthen the top tubes with a drop tube to match.
 
10 Gage? This is from Worksman's website:

"Classically designed with "cantilever" style 18" frame with dual top bars. Fully lugged, hand brazed utilizing 1" 16 gauge frame tubing with 5/8" rear frame stays."
 
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The tubing I'm thinking of is going to accommodate a 3" stretch which is based on what Crazy Horse suggested and he brought up including the off cuts as part of the deal.This is another reason I don't want to notch them. As far as the gauge of the tubing I'll buy what you guys want but it might raise the price. We will have to all agree on or at least take a popular vote on what radius die to buy because I can only afford one. To make myself clear I have no intention of making this a business, I'll essentially be working for free. I just want enough money to cover the cost so I can reinvest in more tooling. I figure $10 over cost of material. I will give the guy a few bucks for the use of the bender and cover the dies. I have a good source for material that should be fairly cheap. The guy that owns the bender tags on his own orders onto the company he works for orders. They don't care as long as the money is there on time.
 
SCUBA Steve said:
10 Gage? This is from Worksman's website:

"Classically designed with "cantilever" style 18" frame with dual top bars. Fully lugged, hand brazed utilizing 1" 16 gauge frame tubing with 5/8" rear frame stays."
Click to expand...

Okay 16 ga. I either misread it or had another thought.... They still carry it.
 
I started exploring other avenues for having tubing bent today. I called a place in MI today but the minimum order was $500 but that shouldn't be hard to do because they wanted $8.95 per bend.
Here's something I tried and it seems to have worked ok. I took a piece of tubing and plugged off one end and filled with sand blast media then bent it with a conduit bender and went far enough that I think the bend is about right for the loop. The only trouble is it slightly flattened the tubing in the bend but not enough to cause concern or show unless your looking for it. I think if I would have packed the media tightly it would have worked perfectly. Just an idea I thought I'd share.
 
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