[morribi]

Does anyone know what the thickness of the plate for the frame on a Pines No.3 and 4 tube bender? I assuming it is .500 inch. I would also like know what is the thickness of for the nose on these benders.

[panozeng]

1/2" sounds rather thin for a 3 or 4. I have a homebuilt copy that's equivalent to about a 3.5 or 3.75 and all of the plate the nose is built from is 1" thick. The spindle is 4" diameter, and so is the main upper bearing....

[morribi]

You might be right on the frame thickness.I thinking it have to be between 1/2" to 1" thick plate.The nose castings I was curious on that because that is a cast part and is very heavy.

[panozeng]

The nose is what I was actually talking about. Mine is all fabricated; no castings. The frame from the nose back is some very heavy C-Channel, and 3/8" plate under that. It's hard to explain... Are you going to build one?

[morribi]

Yes I am thinking about building the machine.I would have the nose fabricated.I am trying to get the right dimensions for the machine especially the nose.I could have the nose roll formed from 1 inch or 1.5 inch plate or larger.I just need to get the dimensions pretty close.

[panozeng]

There are some pics of my bender in this album on my website: http://tubularfab.com/gal2/main.php?g2_itemId=1425 It was mandrel bending 4.0" od x .125 wall steel tube on a 6 inch centerline radius in those shots. An older gentleman built this bender in his garage back in the 60's. He started with a couple of heavy C channels for the top of the frame and worked from there. In the early 2000's he went through it tightening it up and adding a modern PLC to control it. It has a 20hp 3 phase motor powering it, and the main bending cylinder has tandem inline pistons, so it can either operate as one 5" cylinder moving quickly or dual 5" cylinders at half the speed but twice the power. On dual mode it has been known to snap #160 chain (seems like it's 64,000lb rated). It also has a healthy pressure die assist system - can push with up to 32,000 force on the PD as I remember.

Took me a while to figure the machine out, but now that I have a grip on it it works great.

[morribi]

I went and check out your pictures.That is a very nice bender.I think I got the ideal down on building the nose.I guess I was worrying about the material.If I had 1 inch thick plate rolled formed and make sure the inside of the nose is structurally sound ,I think I will be good to go.Do you have any other pictures of the bender that shows it in a better view?How did you find out about this bender from the guy that built in the 1960's?