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pvwacko

pvwacko

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Well with little more than a week left before the Tour de Fat ride here in Tempe AZ I decided that my chopper just wasn't going to do. I've had this sketch sitting around on my desk for a few months now and with the tubing roller all set up it was time to get crazy!
bikesketches4.jpg


First things first. had to make a frame jig. I still have to make a BB holder but the frame support worked for mocking up the postition so I could mark it on the jig.
IMGP3747.jpg


Now this is where it gets really fun!
IMGP3750.jpg


Alot of eyeball work for this kind of deal. if the frame works out well I'll trace it onto plywood for easier recreation.
IMGP3751.jpg


Looking good! Should have the main hoop all welded in tomorrow with the BB in place and time to start working on the rear stays.
IMGP3752.jpg


I've got quite a wish list for this project: Nexus 3speed (or 8 ) internal with a disc brake laced into a 24" for a thick brick tire, Jockey shift, all internal cables, and a stereo. That's where the portable ipod dock comes in. I hope to mold it all into the gas tank for a super clean look.
IMGP3753.jpg
 
Impressed, looking really awesome
Wish I had a tube bender like yours, could you send me some pics of it? :mrgreen:
 
Gdcast said:
Impressed, looking really awesome
Wish I had a tube bender like yours, could you send me some pics of it? :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

Its a HF roll bender. I have one and to be quite honest I'm not very pleased with mine. Chinese made, shafts and bearings are Chinese metric (which is not standard metric) and the roller dies are stamped 1", 1 1/2", 2" but are way different. The 2" die looks like you could roll a 2.75" tube through it. Plus there is a lot of slop right out of the box. I've been told that the dies simply need to be shimmed to take out the slop but I have no idea where I can buy 20mm metric washers here in the USA.

If you do end up getting one, by all means, buy it from their store and not online! I bought mine online, waited 2 months for them to ship it, and when it finally arrived I realized the axle shaft was missing. I called their customer service and spoke to Habeeb (Richard in India) and he informed me that the axle was on back order and it would be a couple more months before it would ship. So I waited for 43 days with no reply from HF on when it might ship. I called them and they said the part was still on back order with no scheduled sipping date. I ended up buying a 1 foot long X 20mm dia piece of cold rolled steel from a metal supplier in Canada for $30. By the way the HF part never shipped and its been 7 months.

I was told that if I'd bought it from their store that I could have returned it for a new one that same day. I hate communism!

Good luck if you get one. They are about $180, the next cheapest tubing roller I can find is at Eastwood http://www.eastwood.com/metal-fabricati ... -dies.html and its $999. If you get a powered unit they start at $2500 and go to about $15K.
 
Thanks for the feedback IronSpade, I´ve been dreaming with a pipe bender for a while now, working on a home made one, very very raty one, kinda hoping for it to work but I have serious doubts about it.
I´m about to finish it, so will know for sure tomorrow about this time.
 
Gonna be a beauty!.......Why isn't this bike in the build off!
 
IronSpadeCycles said:
Gdcast said:
Impressed, looking really awesome
Wish I had a tube bender like yours, could you send me some pics of it? :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

Its a HF roll bender. I have one and to be quite honest I'm not very pleased with mine. Chinese made, shafts and bearings are Chinese metric (which is not standard metric) and the roller dies are stamped 1", 1 1/2", 2" but are way different. .................

I was told that if I'd bought it from their store that I could have returned it for a new one that same day. I hate communism!

Good luck if you get one. They are about $180, the next cheapest tubing roller I can find is at Eastwood http://www.eastwood.com/metal-fabricati ... -dies.html and its $999. If you get a powered unit they start at $2500 and go to about $15K.
Click to expand...

got to learn to make do with what you have. remember that before we had mills that were accurate to more than one thousandth of an inch there was a machinist that could make the parts to make one of the new mills on a machine that wasn't supposed to be as good!
 

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