what tubing jigs are you all using for racks. what is the common tube size for racks.
i am looking at the klien tools tubing bender from home depot. is this tool ok .

Here are my tubing notes
Rack tubes
1/4 x .028 handlebar racks
3/8 x .035 Porteur and rear
some people use 5/16 instead of 3/8 for connecting bars.

Stem tubes
.065 and bore it out to a perfect fit for the steerer.
1.375" .058 for 31.8 bars
1.125" .058 for 25.4 bars
1.125" .049 for 26.0 bars
stems 90 - 100 mm for under 150lb riders . I use 1.125" .035
stems 105 - 120mm all weights 1.125" .049
all 1" ext stems get .049
all lugged stems get .035 ext. I turn the material for the lugs to .035 thick from either .065 (that has been bored) or .058.

frame tubes
1 1/4 x .058

Mixte tubes
1/2 x .035

People I know seem to be happier with the tubing from Aircraft Spruce. Dillsburg is cheaper for a reason, unfortunately. The stuff I got from Dillsburg is ok, but I know people that have gotten tubes with horrible surface finish from them. You don't notice until you clean off the tube either, because it's covered in grime.

Any idea how many feet of tubing go into a Blackburn-style rear rack? A rack is my next project and I'd like to know approximately how much to order.

I'm just building my first racks now, so I don't know. I'm estimating 10, but take that with a grain of salt. If you really don't want to buy extra, you can draw it out. The corners don't really take up much more than just going straight.

Agreed, 10 is spot on. Of course that assumes you plan well and put all your bends in the right spot (without crimping) on the first try.

The racks I make suck up 20 feet, but they are expedition weight. generally the preferred tubing bender is the Rigid, older model.

This is pricey, but would probably be worth it for a lot of bends:

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo...rtypebendr.php



I use one of these:

https://www.princessauto.com/workshop...l-metal-bender

I bought it on sale. I don't use the pictured dies, I substituted 2 machinery type pulleys. I filled them in with epoxy using a Popsicle stick. Perfect 3/8" radius. Later I turned rollers for it out of steel.

the aircraft spruce link goes to benders that look like the Imperial/Gould benders. These are ok, and are easily found on ebay

I wonder if this would work for a beginner?

I have one of those. It works ok on .028 1/4". I'm afraid to use it on anything else though.

As Unterhausen said the Harbor Freight one works well on 1/4 .028, I tried it on 3/8, but can't remember the wall thickness, anyway, I snapped it trying to bend the 3/8 tubing.

I'm doing a happy dance because I just won a Rigid bender on the 'bay. I'm not telling you what I really want, they already cost too much for me to afford right now.

Unterhausen, which model number did you get?