\ I finally used my JD2 Tubing Bender | Tom Mandera's Big Sky Binders

I finally used my JD2 Tubing Bender

Now that my 1.5hp Fenner 220V pump arrived ($175 from Ebay).. I haven't ordered the ram and valve and such, and found a pressing need to bend some tube, so I gave my original plan (of using my 10T porta-power to operate it) a go since I also finally bought some tube (local place actually had some!).



I was working in the new shop at my mom's place when I bought the JD2 a few years ago, and since it was plumbed for radiaint floor heat, manual bending wasn't an option, so I bought the JD2 with the hydraulic mounts, and a 10T Porta-power.



I've since moved to my own shop, without floor heat, and could've mounted the bender to the floor.. but still never ordered any tube, never needed to bend anything, etc. until now...





So I thought I'd give it a try.



First, a shot of my metal storage area..







The bender is mounted to a hunk of 2x2x.250 square tubing. My shop cart has receivers on both sides, at the "front" and the "rear".. the bender is mounted in the forward slot, with some square stock in the rear (closer to the camera) slot just to support the free end of the half stick of 2x.095.







Here's my short-stroke 10T ram with adapter in the "stock" JD2 hydraulic stuff.













Pump...pump...pump..







..retract, disconnect the hydraulic hose, unthread the ram, add the extension in, then rethread the ram into place, reattach the hydraulic hose, and pump..pump.. pump again



(this unthreading business was the biggest PITA of the whole operation)









Repeat with a longer extension this time..







..and again..







..and done.







I was actually just a little short of 90-deg when I was done.





It worked. It took more than 60 seconds to make a 90-deg bend, but it worked.



Biggest PITA was the need to unthread the ram a few times to get enough room to fit the extension in and still get things lined up.



As mentioned, I have the powered hydraulic pump on the shelf now.. just need the 3x24 ram and some hoses and a valve and some time to fab up a stand and I'll be leisurely cranking out bends.. but for this weekend's 2-bend radiator hoop project, I'm going to give it a go with the porta-power.



FWIW, the 10T porta-power set set me back less than JUST the 1.5hp 220V pump..



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