I asked about the Harbor Freight Tubing Roller in a previous post on here last fall.

https://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=664251

Main goal was to be able to roll some 1/2 rod into rings for handles on wagon doors etc. and maybe be able to roll some flat iron for some other projects.

I picked one up earlier as it happened to be on sale in the inside track club.

Had a chance a few days ago to try rolling some items for the first time. Had some old 1/2 smooth rod and tried rolling it.

The smallest set of dies that came with it were the 3/4" ones. It was a bit tricky at first as the rod wanted to rotate as you rolled it through the dies. Ones you got the bend started it rolled back and forth pretty true with minimal effort to keep it in line.  Was able to roll a pretty tight ring. The only draw back I see is on tighter curves the last bit of material develops a straight portion as you can't pass it completely through the rollers as you lose the pressure on it. So you would need to start with a slightly longer piece then you could cut the straight ends off pull the curved ends together and weld them to complete the circle.

Next I tried a piece of like 1/4 " aluminum pipe that used to be part of an old spray wand. It bent relatively easy and into a pretty tight bend. You can see the ends that are straight and unbent better in these pictures.

Next I wanted to try something that was 3/4" pipe to match the actual roller size. The only thing I had on hand was some blue lettering copper pipe that I used to plumb air compressor lines with. This was a 10' rigid stick that I began with.  I was anxious to see how tight a bend I could make without completely kinking the line. It too was tricky to keep straight rolling through the dies at first since it was 10 ft long but once I got the curve started it was easier to keep it rolling through without twisting. Good progress got it down to a single loop but decided to keep going to see how tight it could be made. Eventually had to spread the loops so they could pass on the outside of the tubing roller so it began making the spiral. The pipe was starting to deform and get slightly egg shaped so figured I would stop here. Again you can see the unbent straight portion at the ends and the end is slightly out of round not sure how that would work if trying to solder a coupler or other fitting onto a loop. Thought it was a good demonstration of the capabilities and decided to share here in case others were wondering as well. Looks like this could be used to bend gradual sweeping 90° bends for copper airline around corners instead of soldering on sharp 90° fittings.

All in all very happy with the machine and think it will work just fine for the things I want to do with it.