Tube Design Calculators

We created this page to help you design and manufacture bent tube! Let us know what else you would like to see a calculator for!Β 

Bend In The Middle Calculator

Double 90 – Symmetrical

U.bend

Manufacturing Notes

The “CL” symbol in the drawings is the CENTER LINE of the tube. These are bent “center-out”, meaning that you will form all bends outward form the center of the part. In the case of positive clamp block distances, you can bend the part with both clamp blocks installed (if you have 2), or with one at a time. With the negative clamp block location design result, you can only have one clamp block on the tube at a time. Use a tube rotation gauge to ensure your bends are coplanar in this case.

U Bend 2
U Bend 3

Rolled Radius Calculator

You can use the calculator below to calculate the radius of an already existing shape (like a car roof or bumper). Measuring the radius of an existing large shape is tough without some help.

Radius Calc

Bump Bending (Tube Rolling)

“Bump Bending” is when you make a series of small bends in a straight piece of tubing to approximate a rolled bend. Roll bending is the true way to make large sweeping bends in tubing. We show a roll bender in the “Bender Tech” article on this site. Start with the calculator above if you need to calculate the radius of an already existing shape (like a car roof or bumper). You can use the calculator below to figure out how many bends will go in your part and how many degrees to put on each bend!

Radius Bump Bend

Notes:

Can I use this for any tube bender?

You can likely apply these calulations and layouts to your JD2, ProTools, JMR, Baileigh, or another tubing/pipe bending machine. Just look for the “start of bend” number we provide. Add or subtract your bend offset for your tubing bender, and you’ll be ready to bend accurately on any machine. We’re your one-stop tube bending resource no matter what machine you’re using!

What should we make a calculator for next?

We will build our next FREE calculator for whatever gets the most votes. Just leave your comment and tell us what you want to see. Our 2 most common requests are shown below. We also get a lot of requests for the base 2-bend-U, just a part with (2) 90 degree bends. You can vote for anything, whether we have suggested it or not!

Untitled

61 Comments

  1. B Pillar for TJ/YJ where it fits in the stock brackets

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    • Slider

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    • ‘B’ Pillar for Roll Cage Fabrication

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  2. Slider.

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    • I use both so I vote for both

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    • B pillar

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    • Slider plz

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    • B pillar

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  3. slider

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    • B pillar using bend tech and without using bend tech

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  4. came here to calculate a slider. Do I need to get the bend tech software to do this or is there still a vote going?

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    • B piller calculator

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    • Yes, at this time it is lines on your floor at 100% scale (process described in bending 101) or Bend Tech (or other CAD system). We plan to make one here but as you can tell from the date on this page and comments, we haven’t gotten to this for quite some time. -Joe

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  5. B Pillar

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    • B pillar

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  6. B-Pillar

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  7. Slider

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  8. Slider

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    • Slider

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  9. Pillar please.

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    • Alider

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    • Please! I have been searching for this type of calculator and I’ve been coming up empty. This would be so beneficial to properly lay out your cage and make sure that all of your mathematical information is correct.

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  10. Slider

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  11. both please and thanks

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    • B pillar please

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      • B pillar
        Great calculators

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  12. Slider or B-pillar, couldn’t you use the calculator for either or?

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  13. both but if we have to choose between them then b pillar

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  14. Sliders

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  15. B Pillar.

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  16. B piller

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    • Can we just get these calculators working again ?! But halo calculator would be great.

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      • So weird. As soon as I made the comment the calculators started working again. I’ve been checking back for two days including a bunch of times today.

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      • Sorry about that we are in the process of getting them working again. – Josh in customer service

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        • B pillar

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  17. B PIllar

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  18. B Pillar

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  19. B pillar

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    • Still waiting on that sweet B pillar calculator β™₯️

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      • me 2

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  20. b pillar

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  21. B Pillar please

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  22. B-Pillar Please!!

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  23. Both!!

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    • B pillar

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    • B

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    • Slider πŸ™‚

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  24. B Pillar

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  25. Both!? πŸ˜‰

    πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡ΈπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡ΈπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡ΈπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡ΈπŸ’ͺ

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  26. B Pillar, please!

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  27. b pillar

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  28. I vote for Slider

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  29. I vote b-pillar.

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    • B pillar, could be used for bumpers too!

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  30. B Pillar calculator, for the win!

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  31. B pillar please, thanks

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    • Slider

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  32. slider

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  33. B Pillar

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