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How I Mounted the JD2 Model 32 Tube Bender
By: CowboyBenWade
Have you bought a JD2 Model 32 bender and are trying to figure out how to mount it or what kind of stand to put it on? I'll show you how I did it. Build your own DIY rollable stand for this tube bender.
Floor Mount for Manual Bender (not recommended)
Unless you are buying the hydraulic version or plan on doing a hydraulic conversion using Swag Offroad's kits, you will need a solid mount that won't twist when you crank down on that handle. JD Squared sells a bender mount - you've probably seen it. It's tall - it bolts into a concrete floor and you bolt the bender onto the top. With this setup there are 3 downsides:
Immovable & required drilling holes into the concrete floor - You may have reservations about doing this. I didn't want to do this, and you can't move your bender. You can't move your bender - the only way to free up some space is to remove the actual bender from the stand. The JD2 Model 32 is very heavy, you don't want to be picking it up and having to set it up again each time you need to bend some tube.
Requires a lot of space - you need to have enough room around the bender to get leverage to bend tubes. It just takes up a lot of space.
Less Precise - If you're cranking down on that lever, you're a good ways away from the bender, and it's hard to see the degree wheel. It's going to springback a little bit, and it can be hard to tell if you're there or not. It can be difficult to make exact copies of bends just due to the manual nature of it. Manual bending is not recommended. If you have to budget to get a hydraulic air ram, I highly recommend it.
Build Your Own Stand (Recommended)
With a hydraulic or Harbor Freight air ram setup, you don't need a fixed mounting point for the bender. You can put it on cart, roll it around, and you can see the degree wheel better and know exactly when you have reached the correct angle. I even built a quick disconnect so I can remove the bender from the stand very easily, and I'll show you exactly how I did it.
Get the Swag Offroad Mounting Bracket
You can get just the bracket here https://www.swagoffroad.com/products/mounting-bracket-for-air-hydro-ram If you order their kit to convert your manual bender to use a hydraulic air arm, this bracket will be included. It was in this kit that I ordered: https://www.swagoffroad.com/products/swag-machined-tubing-bender-air-hydraulic-ram-mount.
Swag Offroad Instructions
They give you this piece of paper in the box it's also a pdf: swag_offroad-3.png970 KB You don't have to do everything they did in the picture (I didn't do most of it). Get a 2" standard, square hitch receiver tube. You can get one at home depot or order an unpainted one on Amazon like I did. I cut mine to about 6 inches long. You also don't have to weld the nut onto the bottom of the bracket like they did in the picture. As long as you keep it about six inches long max, you can get your socket in there and tighten the nut. You just need to weld the bracket onto the top of your hitch tube in the correct position as they have it in the photo, and that's all you need to do. You can get the bolt in there to bolt the bender to the mount and put your socket in the other end of the hitch tube and tighten.
My Stand/Cart (use as an example)
I used 2" square tubing with 3/16" wall thickness. While this might seem like overkill, it made it so I didn't need any supports. I couid just create a base, weld a piece sticking up in the middle, and set my bender right on top of that. Here is a photo of the base. I just laid two piece of tubing parallel and welded one in the middle like in a double T shape.
Casters
I spent way more time on this than I needed to, and I designed some little shoes that fit on the front and bolt through the tubing. The casters bolt to these shoes so I'm not having to weld the caster directly to the tubing, but feel free to do that. It would work just as well and be less work.
Rear Wheels
With carts like this, I like to put casters on the front and then larger wheels on the back. I can then pick up the caster end and roll the big wheels easily across dirt or sand. You can't do that as well if you were to put casters on all for ends. Casters are great if you're never going to move it out of your concrete floor shop, but I prefer the bigger wheels on the back. They were simple to design - I just welded a segment of tubing to the back of the rear tubing, drilled a hole through it, and put some 5/8" bolts through there to hold my wheels. It works great.
I did make the base a little bit bigger than it needed to be, but I would rather have it a little bigger than for it to be unstable.
Photos
Welding the base 2"x3/16" wall square tubing
Overall length is about 2 1/2 feet and it's about 2 feet wide. It's very stable at this width. With a thicker sidewall, it's much easier to weld. I stick welded the main two joints. The shoes I made to hold the front casters just slide over the tubing and bolt through with two bolts.
Finished Product
Quick remove mount
This is the short piece of hitch tubing - it's just big enough to slide over the 2"x2" square tubing base. I welded it to the swag off road mount which you can see right on top of it. You can see one bolt on the left and another bolt goes through the hold in the center of the hitch tube. With a ratchet extension, I can tighten it down without having to weld the nut to the bottom of the Swag adapter plate like they have in the instructions.
About the Author
CowboyBenWade does interviews and lectures on a huge variety of topics, and he is an expert in a multitude of fields. His knowledge includes but is not limited to: engineering, chemistry, aviation, cooking, and farming.
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