Which Tubing Bender???

I've had the privilege to own and use two of the top of the line consumer benders available -JD Squared and Rogue Fabrications- and I wanted to share my thoughts and compare both. There is also a shameless plug for my builds to complete the package for anyone interested in fabricating. I hope this helps current builders along with future builders.

-Kyle

Once you have the plans come join the build discussion
Instagram: @kjraycing

DISCLAIMER
Videos are for entertainment only, work performed in the video should only be accomplished by a professional technician. KJ Raycing will not be held liable for ANY personal injuries.

[bryanmayes]

This is the best tube bender comparison video hands down man. You have sold me on a rogue bender 100%

[steveportice]

I am glad you took your time sharing this, I got an idea to build a side car for my road bike, and thinking of building my own UTV over investing 20 grand for a UTV .

[profesonalantagonist]

After watching this video, I am convinced I can make my JMR bender as accurate as the Rogue Fab bender, in the way it is used in your builds. I just have to translate the block positions for the JMR, and create squared blocks from 2 piece tube clamp collars. And setting the bender vertical sounds like a great idea! I would rather figure out how to make my existing bender work for this project, than to just give up and buy another bender.

[Tannerlsx]

this video convinced me to stop looking around and spend the money on the rogue fab
thanks KJ, love your videos. please never stop being technical.

[jeffreyhill]

I have made do with a hand Chinese bender with home made die’s for a long time. Your buggies look beautiful…..I haven’t done frames, carts or minis……but have built lots of stuff, and it’s fun fun fun! It can be done home style……that’s part of the fun too…..got to admit, his work is excellent…as I retire and have more time I have plans. Great video!

[robert]

This video has been a huge eye opener as to how to really use a tubing bender well. I have a pro tools 105 bender with air powered hydraulic ram. It's just like a jd squared. I am going to mount it vertically and use some of the methods you describe with the rogue fab bender. I think it can work out pretty similar with extra aluminum blocks on the tube at the end of the brace that extends from the die. Once I know what that distance is from center I can use it to calculate bends just like with the rogue fab bender along with the extra blocks. Thanks so much for sharing this experience with us. I have 2 old Honda FL350 odysseys to rebuild with rotax 600 motors, extended frames and Polaris RZR XP1000 suspension for me and my son. After those are done then I'll build 2 more buggies for the grand kids using your plans.

[kendesign]

Hey Man! Great comparison video. I run a JD2 M32 that has been modded with an air over hydro cylinder. The custom stand has locking wheels and bends on a vertical plane to take advantage of the digital angle finder trick. I hear you on the just pull it out and bend one thing necessity. The clamp block setup on the Rouge looks to be a game changer, especially if you're designing digitally. The accuracy must be great, but more importantly I bet the repeatability is almost dead nuts! Excellent Symmetry on a tube chassis can be so important especially with high-end builds. Keep up the great work my friend 👍4000 subs!!!! 👏

[danfelt]

Excellent video! Thank you for sharing your experienced opinion! It's clear that you've done your research and I appreciated how you clearly articulated the engineering differences between each manufacturer and the differences in their approaches to bending while remaining positive about both company's products. In the end, it's a clear choice for me. Videos like this help save guys like me days in research and more importantly kill the analysis paralysis! Thank you and keep up the good work!

[coplandjason]

Very good review and thanks for posting, I'd never heard of Rogue Fab, very interesting method and I'm going to investigate a bit more before I decide on a bender. In particular, the ability to make multiple bends, some on a different axis, to be able to do this in a simple way with the Rogue Fab is great. Thanks

[prplezard]

Need to convince "our favorite" YouTube builds to build a crosskart and race!

[butchs.]

Cut my teeth on an old Hossfeld manual bender. I've since bought a JD² Model 3 bender and a Mittler Brothers 180 degree hydraulic bender. My JD² bender is mounted vertically on a cart and powered by the same type of air over hydraulic cylinder seen on your Rogue Fab bender. The cart I built from eBay plans and also mounts an Harbor Freight three die roll bender with upgrades from SWAG Offroad. I primarily bought the JD² bender for bending small diameter tubing, sizes you'd typically use building bike or go kart frames. One of the selling points for me was that JD² offers minimum radius dies (minimum bend radius is typically 3 times the tube diameter.) and due to their design both the MB bender and the Rogue Fab don't. On bigger tube that's not an issue, on small diameter stuff it is when you're trying to replicate parts that were bent using the minimum radius for that tube size. (I.E. 2.25" CLR for 3/4" tube) I agree with your comments about the using the JD² horizontally. I made a bend or two with mine and it brought back all I hated about the old Hossfeld bender I learned on. I found a vertical mount solution and haven't looked back since. It's mobile so it's not in the way when I'm not using it, It's way less fiddly when you're bending vertically, and it's easy to watch the bend gauge when the hydraulic cylinder is doing the grunt work. That said, I'll admit I like some of the features you've demonstrated with the Rogue Fab bender. Doing multiple bends on a piece of tubing is always challenging and having to mirror bend the opposite side even more so. Having a straight forward solution to accomplish that accurately would be quite desirable when doing buggy frames or the like. Kudos for demonstrating the design of their bender and how it can be put to good use.

One last topic, all tubing benders distort the tubing while bending it. Some are worse than others, but even mandrel benders will do so slightly. Structurally, such distortion doesn't compromise the tubing enough to worry about, but if you cut a piece vertically through the bent section you'll see it's no longer perfectly round. It only becomes a problem when you're bending too small a radius for a given tubing size and it kinks, or trying to bend too thin of a wall thickness without a supporting mandrel and the tubing collapses.

[glenpiro]

I got my RF M600 about 2 weeks ago. The quality is absolutely amazing, and Ive gotten to play with it only once since I got it, but I am beyond happy. I got a few upgrades as well, and I am more than looking forward to some real quality time with it. Great review!

[sandels]

good video, i can’t wait crosskart build with full atv suspension and axel videos

[iainlangley]

I like that we saw GHPC and C&C in there. I'd love to see you in a collaboration with them.

[therandomweberlife]

Thanks for the review, you did a fantastic job going over everything without sounding like a toolshed, and your karts are SICK

[RGL_Motorsports]

I had no idea about the blocks in the Rogue Fab bender. This is the first I've seen about buying extra blocks and setting them all up before hand. And it make plane of bend rotation to much easier. I kinda regret getting something else instead of the Rogue Fab bender.

[brookz]

Good job, seems like an honest review. Sweet buggies too.

[dustinharris]

Rogue Fab all the way this is a great comparison video they are both great videos. Another thing I like about the Rogue Fab is how clean a 160-180 degree bend is. Awesome cross kart by the way.

[boondockx]

Thanks, for the honesty. That other guy at Sketch, not sure what's going on over there.
I bought the tradesmen set from Rogue Fab. It's awesome.
Keep on it!

[thomastthai]

JD2 model 3 or 32 will accept different hydraulic cylinders and would address both mounting and setup time in addition to being able to do manual bends. JD2 dies bend quality is much higher and more noticeable on thin wall tubes like OD .083 wall chromoly and mild steel. RF may struggle with those thin-wall tubes. To solve that, RF will be happy to sell you their mandrel attachment. The mandrel will allow you to bend thinner wall tubes though. For your average tube bending needs, either will work fine. If RF copies JD2's die profiles, it would make it even better.