Wanna build a light bar

Without a bender.. it's not gonna happen unless you want to make it with angled corners. I'd find a welding/fabrication shop in town and tell them what you want. I had my front bumper made for $300 out the door, that's 2"x0.25" DOM tubing. And it's a bumper, not just a "light bar" or "brush guard". It's totalled a car and I pull from it.

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/9/web/597000-597999/597075_39_full.jpg

Actually, you can bend without a bender. Fill the tube with sand and it will bend without kinking. Now, it ain't going to be easy, even with thin wall tubing, but it is possible. Nor will it be as accurately bent as tubing done properly. Personally, I'd just buy one of the many many commercially available light bars. Or better yet, get a real bumper.

On 2005-11-22 09:30, Dirty Dog wrote:
Actually, you can bend without a bender. Fill the tube with sand and it will bend without kinking. Now, it ain't going to be easy, even with thin wall tubing, but it is possible. Nor will it be as accurately bent as tubing done properly. Personally, I'd just buy one of the many many commercially available light bars. Or better yet, get a real bumper.

Click to expand...

How's that work, the sand strenthens the tube so the walls don't crush or something? Then you heat the {expletive} out of it and bend it with a vise or something?

The sand just keeps the pipe from crushing. I used this technique as a kid in the Boy Scouts to bend pipe for some home made snowshoes (gotta love those merit badges...). It was not easy to bend even that pipe, which was like 1", but we did it by hand. Bigger pipe could probably also be done by hand if you start with a long enough piece to add leverage.
Be wasteful of pipe, but should be do-able.

find something round and strong with the radius you want to bend the pipe such as an old brake drum. tack this onto a table pretty good. then tack some scrap on the table to hold one end of the pipe from moving. fill the pipe with sand and place it in the jig. heat the pipe to red hot where you want to bend it and bend the pipe. you will need to hold the pipe where you want it for a while until it cools a bit.

p.s. it'll be really hard to get the bends exactly right this way, but it will work okay if you don't have a bender.

Like I said it's not easy to bend tube to fit like that, especially to look good on a truck, and to be the right dimensions. That method of bending, which does work as I've used it with one of those Harbor Freight pipe benders, it just isnt an accurate way to bend. I'd highly recommend either having one made, or just making it square. I believe the Fabtech light bar is what, $100?

I really just don't like what is out there for my truck and what I do like is to $$$. Just want something simple and understated. No offense my truck my taste.

if you don't really care about strength, you can just rent an electrical pipe bender and use 3/4" rigid conduit. they are pretty easy to use and the conduit is pretty tough (you won't be pulling with it though). it would be really easy if you knew an electrician. i'd help you but i'm about 500 miles away. i made my headache rack out of 1" rigid

You can buy weld in 90's, 45's. That way you wouldn't have to bend the pipe, just cut it and weld in the 90's or 45's, what ever you need.

FIRST NOTHINGS IMPOSSABLE, AND THESE GUYS ARE ON TO SOMETHING. FIRST CUT YOUR PIPE EXTRA LONG YOU WILL NEED THE LEVERAGE. SET UP YOUR JIG LIKE THEY WERE SAYING YOU NEED A RADIAS FOR YOUR BEND AND A PIECE TO HOLD THE OTHER END OF THE PIPE. FILL THE PIPE FULL OF SAND AND PLUG BOTH ENDS, TIGHTLY. PLACE MARKS DOWN THE LENGTH OF THE PIPE SPLITING IT IN HALF. THESE WILL BE USED TO MARK THE TOP OF THE PIPE AS YOU BEND IT. INSURING YOUR BENDS LINE UP. A COUPLE HOURS WORTH OF WORK AND YOUR DONE.

Thanks for the tips guys, i forgot to update this post the a guy that has a mechanic shop next to our shop has a race car with a custom frame and told me he could get me a piece of tube bent buy his guy for next to nothing so i'll probably do that i just have to figure out my brackets i want them to bolt on to the bumper bracket at the frame and come up through the cutouts in the bumper. just haven't had much time in the evenings to get back to the shop to work it out. :smash:

FIRST NOTHINGS IMPOSSABLE, AND THESE GUYS ARE ON TO SOMETHING. FIRST CUT YOUR PIPE EXTRA LONG YOU WILL NEED THE LEVERAGE. SET UP YOUR JIG LIKE THEY WERE SAYING YOU NEED A RADIAS FOR YOUR BEND AND A PIECE TO HOLD THE OTHER END OF THE PIPE. FILL THE PIPE FULL OF SAND AND PLUG BOTH ENDS, TIGHTLY. PLACE MARKS DOWN THE LENGTH OF THE PIPE SPLITING IT IN HALF. THESE WILL BE USED TO MARK THE TOP OF THE PIPE AS YOU BEND IT. INSURING YOUR BENDS LINE UP. A COUPLE HOURS WORTH OF WORK AND YOUR DONE.

Click to expand...

man. can't we all just use our "inside" voice.? :

i never thought about electrical conduit for a front bumper, fill it with something so it dosent compress as bad, like sand or soemthing, and if you wont b winching or pulling from it, it should be just fine for some protection.