Bending Tutorial Using Template Bends
The Easy Way To Position Bends
Learning to operate the bender is fairly easy. The real challenge is accurately placing the tube into the bender
so that the bend comes out in the right position. This tutorial will teach you a technique called ‘Template Bending’
to make a rollbar. This is a good ex ample be cause it’s a common request and there are no simple 90
o
bends.
First, you need to make a template. A tem plate is a piece of tubing bent to 90
o
with 6” or more of straight
tubing left on each side of the bend. A reference line cut into the template that allows you to visualize where the
bendmarks should be placed on the tube to be bent. After bending your tube will spring out to a larger radius
than the forming die’s size in di cates. The larger the O.D. or the stronger the tube, the greater the springback.
For in stance, chromemoly tubing will springback roughly twice as far as the ex act same size and wall thickness
of welded seam mild steel tubing. By using a tem plate bend of the same kind of tubing you are going to bend,
you do not have to worry about this springback be cause the template has already sprung out to its finished size.
Cut a piece of tubing roughly 30” long. Next, cut an accurate
line all the way around the tube 6” from the end. The best
way to do this is to use a pipe cutter. Hand scribing this line
is diffi cult and not rec ommended. To the right is shown the
reference line being cut into the tube.
Cut reference line
Load the tube into the bender as shown to the
lower left. The reference line must be positioned
EXACTLY at the flat side of the forming die where
the u-strap block has been welding onto the die.
You must always use the forming die’s flat side as
a reference. Bend the tube to 90o. If the forming
die has a lock bolt on it, use it to securely tighten
the tubing in place. It’s very im por tant that this
mark stays in line with the die’s flat edge during the
bending process or the tem plate will not give you
accurate results later.
Reference line installed at the flat side of the forming die
The completed template
Reference line
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