TubeTek

davidselite737

davidselite737

New Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2006
Location
Wallburg, NC
Well Jason got the tube bender this weekend from tubetek. Cliff delivered it himself. We mounted it tonight and immediatly ran into some issues. Cliff claims this is the 1st one he sold with his air/hydraulic bracket.(I UNDERSTAND WE COULD HAVE GOT SOME BUGS) oh WELL!!! Problem is the main frame is spreading out 1/16 to 1/8" from back to front. This in turn is putting a clinch on the lock pins that drop through the frame and die and swing frame. Plus the bracket for cylinder is made to the boss that the rear mounting bolt travels through which is fine......but.......when you extend the cylinder(not full travel) about 3/4 of the way it hits the front bolt boss on the swing frame. Well enough said. We were both a little upset you could say. No bending, cant hardly get the lock pins out or in. But all that said. I have faith that this guy will help us out to resolve this issue so none of you have to go through it. I'm sure he'll make it work. The machine work is great, it looks like it'll hold up to anything you throw at it. It just needs the little bugs worked out. I'M NOT TRYING TO SLING MUD. I'm just trying to vent a little and hope this issue will be resolved swiftly as we have waited for 4 weeks on this bender. Thanks to all and I will update when problem resolved.:popcorn:
 
didnt take any pics. tried to explain the best I could. sorry.
 
i just stopped by cliffs place a month ago uninvited to buy a bender,he didn't have any dies made,he built me a die while i waited(took about 45 minutes).i love the bender,built my whole buggy with it(its in the build thread section under"buggy build").I'm sure Cliff will get you straightened out.seems to be a great guy.
 
patience?

Well Jason talked to Cliff today. Told him all what was going on. Shot a few ideas of improvement out there. Went through all the areas of mishaps. Cliff is going to make us a new extended bracket for the Ram end to bolt on the swing frame. Hopefully that will solve clearance issue. and the ram end bracket was bowed also. So that in turn threw off all the geometry of the bender on both frames. Also the rear mounting bolt is to be just hand tight. Thats where the cylinder bracket bolts to the boss that the rear (mounting) bolt go thru. (Personally we thought in the future, 2 mounting bolts could be used and make the main frame arm a little longer incorporating a 3rd bolt just for the cylinder clamp.) But all that said, He seemed very willing to help us out. And said the new stuff would be here Friday. So Ill update when it gets here. And see if it takes care of it.
 
You ask for a discount for being the guinea pig/field test guy???

All seem like pretty easy issues that could have been seen in the shop under normal operation testing???
 
pics of problems

Here are a few pics of the setup and the trouble areas that are being corrected.








 
Pics arent showing up for me for some reason?? could be the work filter, but i will say i love my non hydro tube tek. and i don't remember it taking anywhere near 4 weeks?

at first assembly we managed to put the big washer on in the right order and it seemed as if nothing at all fit. (not really suggesting that this is your problem, but it was a little frustrating at the time)
 
yeah we told Cliff that although we put it together right, instruction sheet and stamped # parts would help his customers and him when they would have to order a specific arm or something.
 
the bender itself has no issues for us as I have had one for a while as far as the ram goes I made my own and actually told cliff about the whole idea behind this ram and the air over hydraulic unit from harbor freight and showed him the copperhead fab ram mount bracket which i think works easier than his idea but whatever he likes goes, I will post some pics of our ram as soon as i get it back from being borrowed. Cliff also had my bender to me in a week, I guess it helps that I live about 10 minutes down the road from him
 
I had one, sold it long story

anyway the bender itself is top notch, the name brands are no better, say what you want

I dont like his design on the air over hydraulic setup it is over kill

Cliff started making these benders for the motorcycle guys with 1" dies

He just now caught on to the offroad world, he will get it right, give him some time
 
we made a temporary fix to the current bracket ourselves to get it to work. But still,,...... after spending that amount of $ on something, it should work when you get it, you shouldnt have to modify it yourself..... just my .02$$$$$
 
I have a weird question, is the bracket backwards? It looks like it might work if it's turned around?
 
bugs are getting worked out... Nothing wrong with the design. I would tell you to go get one. Just had some issues but it's all worked out now.
 
Several folks have told me I should join this forum, so I finally did. Been reading lots of different stuff over the last couple evenings and just ran across this thread, so I'll throw in my nickel's worth :)

I fooled around with various iterations of the cylinder mount for a couple weeks and that stretched out the time on Jason's bender. While a bracket like the one from copperhead would work fine, it has 2 drawbacks for someone who's selling benders. First, the size of the bracket precludes it from being shipped in a USPS flat rate box. Shipping goes from $10 to more like $30 when it won't go in a flat rate box, and the shipping cost is then dependent on where in the country the part is going, so I have to do a custom shipping quote for each customer, and that's something I try to avoid as its non-productive time that benefits neither me nor the customer.

Also, it proved to be difficult to come up with something really simple in a bracket like this that wouldn't require some welding on the part of the buyer, just like the one from copperhead requires welding. There's a surprising number of people who just plain will not buy anything that requires any fit-up or welding, even though they're buying it to use for fab work. Make it totally bolt-on and they're happy customers, so a bolt-on set of parts makes the most sense from the marketability point of view.

Jason got the modified ell bracket Friday afternoon and I'm confident that solved the alignment issues on the swinging arms. On the fixed set of arms, I've really never been totally satisfied with the need to snug instead of fully tighten the bolt that passes thru the pivot of either the ratchet operator or the cylinder mount. Seems like I've thought about at least a dozen different solutions, and none of them seemed both good and cost effective, and all of them involved one or more additional machined parts.

So Jason and I were talking Friday and he suggests a tube sleeve that the existing bolt can tighten down on, and a corresponding larger hole in the mating part. One of those major DUHHHH moments for me. Dirt simple solution I've missed all along, yet a fresh set of eyes sees it pretty much immediately.

By simplifying the cylinder mount to a single piece of heavy stock instead of the 3 piece assembly shown in the pic of Jason's bender, it looks like I'll be able to offer the hydraulic cylinder mounting hardware in place of the standard ratchet bar and operator as a $25 option, so anyone buying a bender for use on larger tubing will be able to have a cheap and easy hydro add-on.

Cliff
 
rockcity said:
will it work on a JD2 bender?
Click to expand...

I'm doing a trade with another member here within the coming week, where he's getting one of my benders and I'm getting his JD2. Although I've got the dimensions etc of a JD2 frame, I want to have a bender in hand to verify everything fits and clears as it should. Anyway, I should have the bracket available to fit the JD2 in about 2 weeks.
 
metlmunchr said:
Several folks have told me I should join this forum, so I finally did. Been reading lots of different stuff over the last couple evenings and just ran across this thread, so I'll throw in my nickel's worth :)
I fooled around with various iterations of the cylinder mount for a couple weeks and that stretched out the time on Jason's bender. While a bracket like the one from copperhead would work fine, it has 2 drawbacks for someone who's selling benders. First, the size of the bracket precludes it from being shipped in a USPS flat rate box. Shipping goes from $10 to more like $30 when it won't go in a flat rate box, and the shipping cost is then dependent on where in the country the part is going, so I have to do a custom shipping quote for each customer, and that's something I try to avoid as its non-productive time that benefits neither me nor the customer.
Also, it proved to be difficult to come up with something really simple in a bracket like this that wouldn't require some welding on the part of the buyer, just like the one from copperhead requires welding. There's a surprising number of people who just plain will not buy anything that requires any fit-up or welding, even though they're buying it to use for fab work. Make it totally bolt-on and they're happy customers, so a bolt-on set of parts makes the most sense from the marketability point of view.
Jason got the modified ell bracket Friday afternoon and I'm confident that solved the alignment issues on the swinging arms. On the fixed set of arms, I've really never been totally satisfied with the need to snug instead of fully tighten the bolt that passes thru the pivot of either the ratchet operator or the cylinder mount. Seems like I've thought about at least a dozen different solutions, and none of them seemed both good and cost effective, and all of them involved one or more additional machined parts.
So Jason and I were talking Friday and he suggests a tube sleeve that the existing bolt can tighten down on, and a corresponding larger hole in the mating part. One of those major DUHHHH moments for me. Dirt simple solution I've missed all along, yet a fresh set of eyes sees it pretty much immediately.
By simplifying the cylinder mount to a single piece of heavy stock instead of the 3 piece assembly shown in the pic of Jason's bender, it looks like I'll be able to offer the hydraulic cylinder mounting hardware in place of the standard ratchet bar and operator as a $25 option, so anyone buying a bender for use on larger tubing will be able to have a cheap and easy hydro add-on.
Cliff
Click to expand...

We sure dure appreciate it Cliff. Thanks for all your help and understanding. Like I mentioned above, I was sure you would get it right. Thanks agian.
 
metlmunchr said:
I'm doing a trade with another member here within the coming week, where he's getting one of my benders and I'm getting his JD2. Although I've got the dimensions etc of a JD2 frame, I want to have a bender in hand to verify everything fits and clears as it should. Anyway, I should have the bracket available to fit the JD2 in about 2 weeks.
Click to expand...


just let me know. I don't bend a lot, but when I do its a PITA and this would help a lot for very little $$$
 
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