Harbor Freight tubing roller

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Lowlife Lucas

Lowlife Lucas

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Well, I picked one of these bad boys up tonight. Caught it on sale for $175, had a 20% off coupon and it ended up costing me $152 and some change, so I couldn't pass it up. Anyone else on here using one? I'm pretty anxious to start a build with it.


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I've been looking at those rollers too. Keep us informed on how it works. I'm thinking this could make some very cool custom frames.
 
Some like them but myself, I hate it. Biggest waste of money. Unless you want to do everything in 1 1/2" tubing and have it slightly oval. Save your cash. You can however, buy some good dies to make it work but then you are looking at about $200 for the dies unless you can or know someone who can machine some for you. Heres a link to swagoffroad who makes some dies that actually work:
http://www.swagoffroad.com/SWAG-Tub...ble-With-Harbor-Freight-Tube-Roller_p_51.html
 
Harbor Freight stuff is junk, almost all of it.

A lot of Eastwood stuff is made in China now too, but they have higher quality standards from what I can tell. I got a powder coating system from Eastwood a few years ago and it still works great.

I'd watch CL and ebay also for decent used brands of tools. I bought a Whitney bench punch on ebay not too long ago, normally these Roper Whitney units are over $500 but I lucked out and got one used for $100 plus shipping.
 
the eastwood model won't do large radius curves like the roller model from harbor freight. It's more like a conduit bender where you just bend in 1 spot to the angle you want but with far more power. re: Bender vs Roller.

I used a Harbor Freight roller one time. i wanted an arc with a diameter of about 30". You need to have about 1 foot extra material on either end. and the tube wanted to twist so you have to hold it straight while running it back and forth. I could not get the full bend in 1 pass. It helps to draw a line with a sharpie for reference to monitor the twist. Having dies for smaller diameter tubes would be a big plus, like 1/2", 5/8". using a too-big-die can cause the tube to twist and you can get flat spots on the outer surface.

Harbor Freight has an extra 1/2" square die set for $50. If you had access to a machine lathe, they could be made round or enlarged to 5/8" round. Perhaps some rat-rodder with a machine lathe could offer them. eh, chad?

There are electric roller versions too for a ton of cash. If you were doing production work, those would be worth it for speed and uniformity.
 
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I have the HF tubing roller, and use it almost daily. It takes just a bit to get the hang of it so that it doesn't twist as you're rolling, but it's been working great for me for years. Only mods I've made is changing out the set screws for grade 8 bolts.
 
I think these retailers selling these things for hundreds of dollars are crazy to not include the diameter of the radius. Also, bummer that the cheaper ones won't handle 180degree bends....
 
Bicycle808 said:
I think these retailers selling these things for hundreds of dollars are crazy to not include the diameter of the radius. Also, bummer that the cheaper ones won't handle 180degree bends....
Click to expand...

Tubing rollers have no fixed radius. You keep rolling and moving the wheels until you get what you want. There is a minimum radius possible and that might be handy to know. I would guess the HF tubing roller minimum is close to a plain conduit bender. If you wanted a bend that tight, a conduit bender would be a whole lot simpler and quicker to use.
 
Yeah, most of the dies advertised along with higher-priced benders will list the minimum radius, and somehow, the ones with larger radius bends cost more. I want it tight, for looptails. I'm looking at 3/4" with a 2.25" radius bend, which'd leave a about 3.75" between the stays at the bend.

I suspect that using a conduit bender on thick-walled chromoly will kill the conduit bender. Otherwise, I'd be all for that.....
 
It all depends on what you want/need.
Conduit bender is fine for thin wall emt for particular radii.
Benders are good for race car frames.
Tubing rollers are good for making large graceful arcs.
None are any good for doing the other. They are all specialty tools that beat trying to do what they do by using other methods or tools.
 
I wanna build bike frames; I mostly need something to make near-180s for wishbones and/or looptails with 3/4" steel tubes, and I'd like something to put a nice DX-ish bend in a 1" or 1.125" top tube. It'd be helpful to be able to do other l'il bends in the stays. I'm thinking I need a good bender and the right dies.
 
Bicycle808 said:
I wanna build bike frames; I mostly need something to make near-180s for wishbones and/or looptails with 3/4" steel tubes, and I'd like something to put a nice DX-ish bend in a 1" or 1.125" top tube. It'd be helpful to be able to do other l'il bends in the stays. I'm thinking I need a good bender and the right dies.
Click to expand...
Or cut out the bends from old racing drop bars:

14317578288_a9c6e2e4b9_z.jpg


Luke.
 
I worked in a wood shop before and sometimes we would make a tool. We would take one inch plywood. cut out the inside form of what we wanted and bend the pipe around it. we would screw blocks down as we went along to keep the outside shape in place as we moved along. Cheap one time tool , but it did the job. I was thinking of this to make a top bar or bars to convert a girls bike into a boys bike.
 
Ah, just save yourself the time and headache. Send me some specs along with some $ and I'll do it for you. I need $ for car parts, motorcycle parts, bike parts, tools, skateboards, and beverages.
 
Just saw this,

http://www.lowbucktools.com/hydbender.html

Has a nice hoop at the end of it to hold the tubing to the die and not distort the pipe. Of course, most will complain about the price of this unit is $500, blah, blah...
 
Well Guys, I did a bit of soul searching and double-guessing and cancelled my metal brake from Eastwood Co. After 3 months of waiting it was obvious that this unit is made overseas and I was tired of waiting. Really though, I did some checking around and while a scarcity, there still are some tools made in the USA. Again, I've been doing a lot of thinking and after so many years of working on stuff, it's time to be honest with myself that a better tool does a better job.

So, it's been a learning curve, but I've familiarized myself with the metal working tool brands that still are made in the USA such as Pexto, Roper, Whitney, Tatco, and Baileigh (Woodward Fab. is NOT one of them). Anyhoo, I've been buying used tools where I couldn't afford new ones but still decent brands. Prices have been anywhere from 0 to 50% to 110% more in price for the decent tools vs. their imported equivalents.

I'm very happy with this rivet squeezer which set me back $234 with new dies on eBay.



I'm not talking from an ivory tower. I'm glad I'm at a point in my life where I can afford to pay a bit more. I dunno, just hate seeing people by Chinese junk where they expect it to be bronze tier level quality when it's really just rusty scrap iron level. You'll wind up buying the same tool twice when the first one breaks or doesn't work.
 

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