Alan is too modest to post his stuff as it’s own topic, so I’m outing him… He’s just picked up the project he started a couple of years ago to fabricate his own kart chassis, learning tube bending and welding along the way…
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I will admit to watching Alan bend a tube.
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Wreck tube more like 
.I should have fulled it with sand. I knew it’d pinch… but not quite that bad. With a perfect dye and sand it might be possible. If not will look elsehwere
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That was a cool tool though, I did not know about pneumatic benders like that.
I love this thread! I take my hat off to Alan for attempting this project especially as he hasn’t really had any experience with most of the skills required.
I have experience with building motorcycle frames and lots of other fabrication and I can tell you this is not an easy project. A mandrel tube bender would be ideal but for sure you can do it with out. I’ve bent tube using sand and heat without any sort of bender just a quickly made form. I love brazing and would have chosen that over mig for sure, also tig would be a much better option than mig.
I look forward to seeing more progress 
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That hydraulic bender is meant for bending nominal bore pipe not tube. It can work in a pinch but not easily.
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Reminds me of my first engine go kart.
Our local school teacher used to build karts as projects. His design caught on in the local area.
Boxing tubing, plastic school chair seats, and a honda 50-90 engine and lawnmower wheels.
Some of the better ones had hydraulic disc brakes and 2 stroke engines.
You could only turn right , if you turned left, the narrow track and engine weight meant the kart flipped over… haha
Dangerious but great fun all the same.
The were built for 200-300 euro around the year 2000. Basically a scrap heap challenge job. Find a suitable motorbike and build a kart from it. I somehow dont think you can buy old motorbikes for 100-200 euro now to easy.
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