Ever F'd up your bender dies?

[clemsonjeep]

Just a curiosity since I don't know a lot about how they produce these followers...

Is it possible that the original surface was treated in some way...by heat or something else, and then over time using it and smoothing it back out has worn past that layer of treatment and is allowing the softer material underneath to "peel" away under load?

 

[Skidkid]

I keep my dies coated with WD40 when they aren't in use but I'm still getting some light rust. Would there be any issues sanding it off?

Scotch bright pads. Mine are coated with a layer of spray lithium grease and solves rust issues. Must wear gloves I dedicate to bender tube and die handling cause it gets nasty a bit. I wipe off excess grease at times too. A lil brake clean or thinner on a rage cleans the tube right up.

 

[bradzuki]

I called Pro-Tools this morning. The engineers emailed me back after I sent them the picture I posted above. According to them the dies must be replaced after 1500-2000 bends so I am lucky that I've gotten over 3K bends out of mine. The dies are made out of regular steel, not hardened, not heat treated, not coated with anything. They are going to send me another one for $99 but I have to send mine back in so they can get the correct hole placement.

 

[85toyo]

Replacing a follower makes since but how does a die get enough wear to need replacing? Maybe that's just their sells pitch to sell more die sets.

 

[offroadr1]

hell we have built over 50 cages on our jd2 dies and they have little to no wear. we clean every tube with acetone before running them through the bender though

 

[pachary]

The follower has tube "sliding" on it. The other part of the die set does not...... Very little wear on the round part of the die, pin holes should be the wear part on them, unless bending thick tubing. Then everything wears