i had one of them benders that i bought threw a mac dealer, was the same one that you had a link to only diffeance was the one i had was black and on a stand. i payed $1000 for it, bent 2 autopower door bars i had laying around from the cage that is in my car and found out no matter what i did that bender would not work with the material i was using. that type of bender is for solid round bar or square bar. i sent that bender back and bought a pull type bender, this was a grand aswell but with no manderals , each manderal coast me $1000 also so with what i am doin i needed a 1.625 and a 1.750 manderal . i opted to get the tight radious for both diamiters in hopes that i will be able to do all of my cages nice and tight. trust me man dont waist your money on that bender. around here there are people who will bend a pipe for $5 a bend and you fit to your car. i would look into it or just buy a autopower bar.

I need a pipe lay-er

I lay pipe - but know nothing about this 'bending' crap you speak of.

i dont know of anyone around me that will bend it unless there doing your whole cage installation.



i guess i'll keep searching for one.



and the cage is to make my daily driver a bit safer. passing SCCA or NHRA or whatever does not matter to me.

I can see your point, but I also see the benefit to following a sanctioning body's guidelines, since they've presumably done the research to determine what is "safe" and what isn't. Not saying that your design wouldn't be good enough, just that if you are going to the trouble to put in a cage, it ought to be up to snuff.

My comments:



1. By installing ANY Rollbar/Rollcage; it automatically makes it "inspectable" at any track, any sanctioning body. Say you want to go screw off at the dragstrip/ YOU CANT: Your bastard cage wont pass spec.

2. PIPE isnt allowed by any sanctioning body. PIPE=ERW which means it has a welded seam up the length. Guess where it splits?

3. Use the right tool for the job. Especially when your safety depends on it.



Lemme Guess? You are going to weld this with a 110V MIG from Horror Fright. :(

our dragstrip does not have to have a roll cage unless you break into the 11's. i doubt my TII will.



and no. im using 220 volt MIG. not from harbor freight.



so what do you recomend? if you didnt notice, i was asking for opinions on the bender and any others that might be good.

your right, if your going to do it...do it right.



im still looking for a good bender that dosnt cost more than 5 pre-made cages.

i may have found it...



http://www.medfordtools.com/mb3.html



out of stock at the moment though...