Looking for a tube bender to bend aluminum tubing, about 1.25" OD, 1.15" ID, so nothing too big.

Something that you crank is fine, as anything powered costs thousands of dollars, it seems.

These pieces are being bent for kits that a friend of mine is making, and so far our current method of bending leaves creases on the inside angle, and flattens the outer angle.

 

In this case Google is your friend. A quick check shows quite a few that will do what you want for $250 or less. I like the looks of the one from Eastwood. Their stuff is generally of good quality.

 

Google did indeed bring up a lot of results, that's why I wanted to ask here if anyone has had any experience with what's listed.

I know even Jegs has one for $99, but not sure I'd trust it without verifiable testimony from someone!

I'll see if I can find some more info on the Eastwood unit.

 

I've been happy with my harbor freight tubing roller. For less than $200 it comes with 1, 1.5 and 2" dies and those are worth the money alone. I did shear out the threading on the screw drive plate, but I picked up the hydraulic bottle jack kit from swag offroad, obsoleting the top screw. Swag makes a munch of cool and useful upgrades just for this unit and they sell all kinds of dies for it. They also make their tubing roller, of higher build quality, but still based on the harbor freight design, so most stuff is interchangeable, I think.

You could get a nicer jd2m bender for $300, but you haven't even bought the dies at that point.

 

Yeah, dies are ridiculously expensive.

I'll check the one from harbor freight out later today. Come to find out we'll be working with OD as large as 2.5", aluminum, stainless, and mild.

Thinking this is going to be a rather pricey investment, haha. On the bright side, I'll be able to form a new exhaust for my silver Mercedes a lot easier!

 

Here is a link to Swag's accessories and replacement parts for that tubing roller. They even have dies for small diameter tubing and solid rods.

Tubing Roller, Dies & Accessories

 

I had the pleasure of using a JD Squared Model 32 at another shop and wow, I'm impressed.

I think this is what I'll be getting for myself/shop.

When I get it, and get some more tubes bent under my belt, I'll be sure to update on how I feel about it.

Getting it with just a single 1-1/4" die for now, and the pedestal, which sets me at around $730, not including any shipping.