Bending 3/4" square tube?

i'm getting ready to build the front passenger compartment of my floor and need a good way to make some nice bends for my tranny/driveshaft tunnel. i'm building the floor out of 3/4" o.d. tubing with an 1/8" wall. i've noticed that other people have used the same and was wondering if anyone had a method of bending this tube without a bender? i was thinking of welding a 4" section of 4-5" o.d. pipe to my steel plate table and trying to bend it around that. Has anyone ever tryed that? thanks in advance.

That would probably work, are you using a torch to heat it up while bending or are you just going to muscle it?

It won't work unless you heat that motherfucker up. The only way to get nice bends unfortunately is with a pro tools or JD2 bender. THey run about $300 plus a good die set which is about 150 for 1.5" DOM. Not bad considering the possibilities.

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i was gonna try to muscle it i think. i dont really care if they are perfect looking bends because they are getting covered with sheetmetal anyways. i really dont have the money for a bender, the car is sucking up enough as it is. do you think i can do it by just muscling it? or should i put some heat to it?

Originally posted by slammed88cutlass



i was gonna try to muscle it i think. i dont really care if they are perfect looking bends because they are getting covered with sheetmetal anyways. i really dont have the money for a bender, the car is sucking up enough as it is. do you think i can do it by just muscling it? or should i put some heat to it?

gonna need heat forsure...

heat wont hurt. less muscle needed then.

The thing about the cheap benders is they tend to kink pipe instead of bend it. If you're good with a grinder and welder and have got some time to piss around, go for it. I hate fucking around personally.

i'll try it with heat and hopefully it works. if that doesnt work (which i think it will) i was gonna try to get one of those 70 dollar hydraulic pipe benders from harbor freight and make my own die to bend square with. do you guys think that would work? i hear if you fill the tubing with sand and bend slow with it that it is supposed to work perfect. has anyone ever tryed that?

I have square die's and they have a compression relief on the inside.I use them to make floor frame's and bed cover's.It would take me all of ten minute's to bend what you need and the pipe is cheap but shipping might be a few dollar's coming from oklahoma..you could heat it up but that small pipe is pretty soft and not very strong after it's stretched.

what would you charge me to bend say like seven 180's 3 the same size and 3-4 a little larger to go over my trans? a ball park figure? that would make life a lot easier and would undoubtedly come out nicer. let me know.