I have some photos, and I'll try to give a description of what I did to the bender. One of the keys is that I am using oversized 1-5/8" tubing. The OD measures 1.66", and has a .140 wall section. This is the same specification (A500 I believe, off the top of my head) as the more common 1.625" OD, but is made in the same size as 1-1/4 schedule 40 pipe. If you look around, this size tubing is not too hard to find. Ryerson has it, and they are a national distributor.
This is important because the HF bender has a "saddle" for 1-1/4" schedule 40 pipe. The main issues that people have when trying to use the HF bender are that the tube will kink at the bend, actually pulling away from the saddle, and that the support rollers don't fit the tubing right. I tried to address both of these issues.
Here is how I made a support clamp to prevent kinking of the tube at the saddle.
I used a piece of 3" x 7" rectangular tubing, cut a section of it, drilling holes through the 3" section to hold it to the saddle. Then I drilled another hole on the centerline and welded a 1/2" NC nut on top of the rectangular tubing. In theory, running the 1/2" bolt down against the tube when it's mounted in the saddle would help to prevent kinking. However, I wanted a better fit and more even support, so I made this...
I took a piece of heavy walled tubing (3/8" wall with 1-5/8" ID), and bored the tube to 1.66", so it would be a perfect fit around my tubing. Then I split it lengthwise, milled a flat on it, and welded a short piece of pipe to it. The short piece of pipe serves as a pocket for the 1/2" bolt to seat into. When it's together, it looks like this...
I also drilled a 1" hole through the 3x7 tube to allow me to see the centerline of the saddle, where the tube sits (not shown in a photo, but 90 degrees to the photo above). That way, I can mark where I want the center of the bend, then view it through the 1" hole "window".
The other issue with the HF benders is that the outer supports are just cast rollers. Here's a photo of what I did to address that issue.
This photo shows the 2 "shoes" flipped upside down relative to the way they would be when bending a tube. I used the same technique as described above for boring a heavy walled tube to match the OD of the tubing being bent, splitting the tube, then milling a groove to accept a short piece of 1/2" schedule 40 pipe, which also had to be bored to fit the pivot pins on the HF bender.
Here's another photo, showing one of the shoes in the rightside-up position.
This shoe gives much better support to the tube being bent than the rollers provided by HF, which basically only give point contact. I polished the sliding surface of the shoes, and used a generous application of grease when bending.
This is the bender, shown with the modified saddle in the center, and the custom made shoes in the pivot locations.
Here's a birds-eye view through the long axis of the bender.
And here is the bender in action, making a 90 degree bend for the halo bar. The 2 angle finders serve as a pretty good way to keep an eye on the total included angle. I used a much nicer digital level to verify the readings. I also took the precaution of filling the tube with sand before making the bends, in order to minimize any flattening of the outside of the bends.
Just a couple more pics for now. I made a basic clamp setup to go on the lathe compound, which will allow me to notch tubing pretty accurately.
I also picked up a few engines (3 to be exact) and a transmission for the project. Not all of the parts will be used, but I got a deal that I couldn't pass up for all 3.