# Best Homemade Tools >  Homemade manual square tube bender

## Tuomas

*This is my homemade manual square tube bender:*




Makes 0-90 degree bends to 25mm ( 1" )- 30mm square tubes.
Bending radius is 50mm ( 2" )

Way that i used for making die, works with round tubes / pipes too. 

*Tool:*


*Result:*


Fast to use, and somewhat easy and cheap to make. 

*Die is made from 10mm and 4mm plate.
Arm for the bender made from 50mm x 10mm flat bar and 20mm axle
Body of the bender is 5mm plate and 50 x 50 x 5mm square tube.*

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carloski (Jul 1, 2022),

Frontier Forge (Dec 19, 2018),

high-side (Dec 17, 2018),

johncg (May 6, 2021),

Jon (Dec 16, 2018),

KustomsbyKent (Mar 14, 2019),

LMMasterMariner (Dec 16, 2018),

mecschnell (Aug 22, 2022),

Paul Jones (Dec 15, 2018),

Scotsman Hosie (Apr 27, 2019),

stuffucanmake (Dec 16, 2018),

Tenn (Mar 12, 2019),

thevillageinn (Dec 24, 2018),

Tooler2 (Jul 12, 2021),

Trojan Horse (Jun 3, 2019),

verticalmurph (Nov 27, 2021)

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## Frank S

nice little sq tube bender now you just need a better mount but you knew that. 
When I first saw your die stack I was thinking that you might have the center plate a little large in diameter but after seeing the tight radius it looks just about right. 
For my hydraulic Hossfeld that I used to have I made a double die for 1" sq tube so I could bend 2 pieces at a time with a 1.75 outside bend radius I machined my die out of a single solid piece of stock with the center ribs at 1/3 the cross section of the tube. it worked great for over 10,000 bends

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## Tuomas

> nice little sq tube bender now you just need a better mount but you knew that. 
> When I first saw your die stack I was thinking that you might have the center plate a little large in diameter but after seeing the tight radius it looks just about right. 
> For my hydraulic Hossfeld that I used to have I made a double die for 1" sq tube so I could bend 2 pieces at a time with a 1.75 outside bend radius I machined my die out of a single solid piece of stock with the center ribs at 1/3 the cross section of the tube. it worked great for over 10,000 bends



Thank you Frank!

Because it was easy to re-shape center plate of the die. 
I grinded half of it to 55mm dia. 90 degree bend needs only 180 degree from the die, so now i can use that same die for making bends with two different "slot" depths. (55mm and 60mm dia. / 5mm or 10mm deep slot )

 

Comparison:

Left is with the larger dia / deeper slot. 




Right is with the larger dia / deeper slot. ( my opinion is that right one is little smoother ?)



I failed to get sharp picture from that side. Sorry
Upper one is with the deeper slot.



Deeper slot reguires more power to be used during bending, but result is maybe little smoother, 
caliber says that max widht of the bend tube is 30mm ( with 25mm tube). 
When using shallow slot, max widht is 32mm.

Also it "feels" that bend made with the deeper slot handles more weight before it starts to bend in use. 
( when used as in shelf bracket for example )

But i tested that just by pressing and bending them with my hands against the floor, so i can't say for sure.

So, difference's are somewhat minimal, maybe i'll find out after couple hundreds of bends is there any big difference.

One thing is sure, that square tube bend like this, handles more weight than mitered and weld joint, before it starts to bend. 
Also bending is much faster procedure, and gives similar results every time.

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PJs (Dec 17, 2018),

Scotsman Hosie (Apr 27, 2019),

tenncf (Sep 6, 2020)

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## stuffucanmake

This is a great solution!!

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## kburk

That's a great bender. Nice work.

Keith

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## Tuomas

> This is a great solution!!



Thanks buddy! Im going to try another change for the die today. 
To see if it makes noticeable change for the result...

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## Tuomas

> That's a great bender. Nice work.
> 
> Keith



Thank you very much!

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## DIYer

Thanks Tuomas! We've added your Bender to our Metalworking category,
as well as to your builder page: Tuomas's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:















Bender
 by Tuomas

tags:
tubing, bender

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## Tuomas

*And here is the final improvements / tests.*

I made another set of " side support plates ".

Now i used 75mm radius, originally those we're made using 65mm radius.
Also i welded curves from the 1,5mm plate to the edges, to get gap between supports and tube smaller.

 

Now internal widht of the die, when bending 25mm x 25mm ( 1" ) square tubing, is 27mm.

I made test bends with the new supports using both slot depths, 5mm and 10mm.



*From the left.*

Shallow slot, with original support plates... Deeper slot with original support plates...
Shallow slot with new support plates... Deeper slot with new support plates.

There is no huge difference. 
*But deeper slot with new, wider support plates, gives smoother results and stays closer to original dimensions, than others.
*

Measured thickness from the radius side is 20mm and widht 27mm, also shape stays similar from the whole bent area.



*Because deeper slots gives best results, here is the comparison between them.
Left is with the wider support, right is with the original one*.

Also, it feels that deeper slot with wider support is also easiest to bend.. 
*But reason can also be just that i founded better way to use my body for pressing than first times.*

Thanks for checking this out.

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Scotsman Hosie (Apr 27, 2019)

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## Frank S

Are you noticing any flex in the side plates or are they staying tight against the center die.

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## Tuomas

> Are you noticing any flex in the side plates or are they staying tight against the center die.



I haven't. 

As you see "arms" supports the package on vertical direction.

 

*Also i have to take back my previous post.
If you look those pictures closely, you notice that i mounted that lower edge support plate wrong side up. blaah... 
That's why i got different results with the widht. 
*

Also i made a little improvement, just drilled a hole through the whole thing, now i can lock the used "slot depth", and get similar results every time.



Now when comparing deep, or shallow slot. Only difference can be seen from this picture:


Somewhat similar, only difference is that deeper slot handles little bigger force before it starts to loose its shape.

*I think that the result is now somewhat best that i can get with the manual bender with radius this tight, and i wanted to get tight radius. 
( without need to use plenty of time for bending ).
*



Personally i am satisfied... Now i just need to make stronger vise mount.  :Head Scratch:

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Jon (Dec 19, 2018)

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## Frontier Forge

Brilliant! What a great idea. Heck of a job, mate!

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Tuomas (Dec 19, 2018)

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## Tuomas

> Brilliant! What a great idea. Heck of a job, mate!



Thank you very much.

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## Whitworthsocket

Very good work Thomas.
Try putting the weld on the side. (Neutral axis). It may or may not make a big difference. However it's good practice to put the seam or weld on the neutral axis. To minimise any chance of the weld splitting

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## Whitworthsocket

If you want a really small radius. You can fabricate a vee block with slightly tapered sides out of say 10mm plate. To use in a hydraulic press. Then make a "nose" from polished 25 x 8 mm flat bar to push on the inside (topside) of the steel tube. The die needs to be lubricated. 
It's probably better to call it a "crush" bend. It did not take too long to set up and it worked very well.
I am not sure if I kept it when I moved workshops but if I find it I will post an image.

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## Tuomas

> Very good work Thomas.
> Try putting the weld on the side. (Neutral axis). It may or may not make a big difference. However it's good practice to put the seam or weld on the neutral axis. To minimise any chance of the weld splitting



Thanks!

Sorry about answering little late. But, my English ain't very good.. I am not sure where you suggested to add welds?

Its always good to practise welding, but i rather don't practise for pieces that i'm working on.
Anyway, i like to use welds only in those places where its required.

That might sound weird, because i have worked with metals over 20 years, and have two graduates about welding.

*Actual bender* is designed so, that there is welds on every direction, 
those plug welds and seams on the ends of the split square tubing " locks " possible movements on the sideways, also there is that curved plate on opposite edge of the square tubing.

Those makes structure so strong, that at the point when welds could possible split,
it is lost its shape and most likely is unusable condition anyway.
I try to plan and use welds as strong as the materials are, to avoid unnecessary distortion.

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## Tuomas

Here is one example where i use this.





Result was a referee's chair for pull ups competition.

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## Tuomas

I made the pull up stand too. I post some pictures later, If one is interested. 

Here is a clip about in use. 
New national Record in Females 52 chinups: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CWyX_v9...dium=copy_link

Idea in the stand is to lift shorter pullers to reach the bar, and then lower it down, to allow free movement of feets.

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