i know seth posted his build a little bit ago and looking through some articles and all I see some people tend to use air/hydro, and some people tend to use just a normal mechanical setup.
whats the difference other than you physically having to pull the bar around, is it a better bend with air/hydro? reason i ask is i found a plan on ebay (link below) and i was thinking of possibly building it. i don't want to build it though if it's going to be some shitty design that ends up loose as far as exact bends and duplicating them are concerned.
its easier with hydro/air.. but if you get say a jd2 and get their handle extension.. bending 1.25 .250 wall isnt bad at all.. plus its a ratcheting setup. just keep on cranking!
A dab of grease is all I use on the wiper die on my bender Chad, its esentually a clone of your JD2. The ratcheting manual style bender makes nice consistent bends Grant and works well with a cheater handle on it. The air over hydraulic conversion works well too but is really only necessary if you're using the bender on a fairly regular basis and want to save some effort. Thats my 2 cents anyways...
Yeah all I use is WD-40. I bought some of the "tube lube" that Trick-Tools has, and it didn't really seem to make any difference. And it didn't last all that long.