I know that some will say "it's cheating", but here's what I do to make tubing bending nicer and easier.

I save up my scrap tubing bends and pieces. Then you can use the scraps to determine where to start your bends with the tubing bender. The first bend in the tubing is "the no brainer", but the second bend, third bend, etc are much harder to get to come out at the correct length. I'm sure for the guys that bend tubing everyday it's easy. But for those of us that do this a couple of times a year the scrap bends really help avoid making mistakes. Especially if you bending stainless or chromoly you don't want to be wasting material on mistakes.

One other thing about tube bending, there "is a difference" in buying a name brand quality bender and not a Harbor Freight copy. If you ever have a chance to borrow a good bender you will never use a cheap one again.