baileigh rdb-25 bender

[Cliff McLeroy]

Can anyone comment on this bender? I found a few comments but wondered if anyone can elaborate. It looks like with the roller followers, multiple dies, and larger radii, it would be better for racks and such than a lot of other benders. And also it's a good price. I have read on other forums that the dies are cast and rough, but that they can be cleaned up. manual-tube-bender-rdb-25

Thanks,

Cliff McLeroy

[Whit Johnson]

IMO it's almost useless for framebuilding. I'll sell you mine if you want though!
I use the 1/2" die for bridges but it leaves pock marks on the tube (0.035" wall) and almost doesn't give a constant radius.
The does have a rough finish. If you have the desire you could smooth them out but then why not buy a better bender...

[Jon Norstog]

Well, you get a lot of benders for the money.  Unfortunately the clamp is poorly designed and bites into the tube just above the bend.  Bites deep!  Don't buy one for frame building.  Might be pretty good if you are making burglar bars or something.

jn

"Thursday"

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[Cliff McLeroy]

Whit,

Thanks for the feedback. One application I was hoping to use this for is the larger sizes, 1/2, 5/8, and 3/4 for bridges and seatstays. But it sounds like it's not working too well for you. I tried a fairly nice bender years ago and it kinked the inside on virtually everything I tried. It had nice machined dies but it was a 3 die type where the 2 outer were rollers and the center was on threaded rod. I thought maybe this one with the roller follower might prevent that. When you say pock marks do you mean kinks or small dimples from the roughness of the cast dies? If it's the latter then I might be interested in buying yours. Otherwise it seems like bending 1/2" and above thinwall 4130 is really tough.

Thanks, Cliff

[David Saul]

I have one of those as well and the only thing I use it for is 1/2" tubing for bridges.  Even then, the radius is not tight enough for road bike bridges.  I'm planning to make a different clamp assembly and some straight followers, along with cleaning up the rough dies on the mill.  I don't have much hope for it for framebuilding purposes.