Any tips on exhaust pipe benders, that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

I've been meaning to upgrade the shop by adding an exhaust pipe bender but the ones I look at online that cost around $300 US doesn't seem to perform well with exhaust pipes, at least according to the reviews.

Is it even possible to find one that works in that price range, and if so, which one is it?

 

Most are pipe kinkers, the Speedway type works good on chassis tubing.
Anything that rotates a quadrant around a pivot, except with exhaust pipe you should consider some internal mandrel added to it.
I buy already formed mandrel bends for headers and exhaust, pass the charge on...

 

$300???

I bet a decent mandrel-bender is $30,000.

Yup.

 

WOW, 300 bucks only?
You sure you weren't looking at tubing benders?

 

Here's one that says both pipe and tube, and that's why I'm asking.

 

I'm sure there are those as well, but a normal one is more like $7k.

 

I'd want to see a sample of bent exhaust tubing from that machine before I bought one.

I don't know...I'm making wild guesses. I'd expect a crush-bender to be $7K, and a mandrel bender to be MUCH more than that. I know of lots of exhaust shops that have crush-benders. I've never seen an exhaust shop with a mandrel bender.

[Edit]http://www.bestbuyautoequipment.com/pipe-benders-s/302.htm
A bunch of exhaust pipe crush-benders, from $6K to about $11K. None of them are advertised as mandrel-bending.

There's a Jet-brand manual bender for $1,079 plus shipping.

 

if you are in the market for a mandrell bender I would double that $30k estimate, especially by the time you get it up and running. Even used crush benders are in the $5k range if they have the dies and such in good condition.

you are better off to buy the bends and "piece" the system together and weld it up. Or better yet buy the prebent madrell stuff and install it