dies for cage building
 

Building a main hoop for a 69 Camaro out of 1.625 chro-moly. What radius are you guys using?

5" or 5.5"

radius
 

I think mine are 6" but don't hold me to that...

I looked into this before purchasing my 1.625" die as well. The advice I got was to buy the smallest CLR available that is spec'd to bend the minimum wall thickness tube you are bending.

I was bending 1.625" .083 wall which happens to be the minimum wall thickness on the JD2 Model 4 5.5" CLR die so that's what I got. So far, so good. I've bent some 90 degree bends and haven't noticed any issues.

John

Keep in mind that some race club rules have .120 wall thickness minimum. Making the chromo useless

Also, some sanctioning bodies specify a minimum bend radius. For example the SCCA specifies that the bend radius must be a minimum of 3 times the diameter of the tubing. So 1.75" diameter tubing must have a minimum radius of 5.25"

I had meant to reply several months back, but I forgot...

Thanks for the suggestions guys. A local shop uses 6.5" for theirs, so that's what I went with. I agree with your consensus, a tighter radius would have been better. But I'm happy with what I got. I'll probably run a few drag strips a bit more than the autocross, so I went with a NHRA sportsman style cage. I'll do some autocross for fun, but I don't plan on being competitive at it. Any one know what radius bends fits a nitrous bottle? This is the first tubing I've ever bent, it was pretty enjoyable...

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...psma07owpz.jpg

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...pshdvhmvoz.jpg

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8holu0c9.jpg

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...psb18tky64.jpg

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...psqsunmoax.jpg

nice work!!

Well done Sir! :thumbsup: