Tube bender and welder questions...

[CaptNugget]

Hi I'm looking into getting a tube bender and welder to start making my own mini bikes and such (hopefully) ... I was jus wondering if anyone could give me suggestions on what to look for in the tube bender spec wise and any suggestions on what type I welder to get.?
I looked up the harbor freight tube bender and am wondering if that would work. I don't really have any idea as to what to look for in a welder either but the cheaper the better to me as long as it performs.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks
Also if u kno any other tools I may need for this lemme kno I might not have em thanks

 

[mrpat]

I recently purchased a Model 3 bender from JD2. It works really nice, but it has no stop for repeatability. Pro Tools 105, and JMR Mechanical Bender are just as good and have great reviews.

Are you talking about the orange Harbor Freight hydraulic tube bender?
I have no feedback on that one since I've never used it.

I own a little Lincoln 110 volt mig welder and it welds great up to 3/16". I just use the flux core wire, a little dirty but uses no gas. A friend of mine uses a Harbor Freight $99 dollar flux core welder and it does a good job as well. I may not want to use it 8-10 hours a day, but for projects I think it is a good little machine.

 

[toomanytoys]

Hobart Welder 115 & 230V Mig Handler 210MPV 500553 by Hobart Retail Sales for $894.99 : Rural King

I actually bought this one last week. I haven't used it yet. But, its flexible. 110 for small jobs, plug into 220 for big jobs!

Can be used with gas or as a flux core machine.

For the price I don't know what more you could want. I paid less than whats on the website as I ordered from a friend of mine who sells welders for a living. At the end of each year he gets coupons to buy items with if he makes his

 

[bigrob]

Believe it or not the cheap $99 flux core machines don't work all that bad as long as a you use good quaility name brand wire
No its not a professional machine but to get started in basic homeshop work it is cheap way to learn
I bought one expecting it to be JUNK lol but end up useing it for quick fixes all the time rather than getting out my better machine and with the added bonus of being 120v 20amp you can use it any where

As for the bender run away lol it is designed for bending "pipe" with a heavyier wall or schedule when used on thinner tubeing as per minibike frames it will kink it as fast as you can pump the jack handle
Some people have had better luck than me by packing the tube with sand but thats a lot of extra mess
A true tubeing bender will use a die and follower to actually wrap or pull the tube around the die and do bends in excess of 90 degrees

Good luck there is nothinv more rewarding than building from scratch!