I need a bender. Mostly, I will be bending solid square bar, rod, and flat
bar. Occasionally, I might want to bend the occasional 1/2" to 1" square
and round tubing. And then, I would like a scroll bending attachment.

I have seen these all over the board in prices. From Harbor Freight on up.
Anyone have one of these benders, and can suggest a source, and maybe some
cautions on what to look for? Would I be better off to just get a simple
one, and not go for all the extra stuff that I might only use rarely?

Steve

In article Kd9zc.65782$My6.1859@fed1read05, SteveB
wrote:

I need a bender. Mostly, I will be bending solid square bar, rod, and flat
bar. Occasionally, I might want to bend the occasional 1/2" to 1" square
and round tubing. And then, I would like a scroll bending attachment.

I have seen these all over the board in prices. From Harbor Freight on up.
Anyone have one of these benders, and can suggest a source, and maybe some
cautions on what to look for? Would I be better off to just get a simple
one, and not go for all the extra stuff that I might only use rarely?

Steve




2 different categories of benders.

For solid bar stock look here

http://www.shopoutfitters.com/

And here

http://www.metalcraftusa.com/

For tubing benders look here at the #3 bender

http://www.jd2.com/

And here for their version

http://www.pro-tools.com/

I have the Hossfeld #2 bender. It is a bit pricey but I never ever worry
about the dies breaking when I'm leaning all I have into the handle. There
are LOTS of dies available for this unit to bend nearly any shape in nearly
any position. They will even custom make you a die for an odd shape or
application but I imagine that would cost alot. The base package has
everything you need for up to 1/4" x 4" flat, 2" pipe (not tubing) and I
think up to 5/8" CRR. Dies are extra for square tubing. I have the die set
for 1" square and it works great. It also comes with stops and guides for
production runs. Also made in America.

Shawn
"SteveB" wrote in message
news:Kd9zc.65782$My6.1859@fed1read05...
I need a bender. Mostly, I will be bending solid square bar, rod, and
flat
bar. Occasionally, I might want to bend the occasional 1/2" to 1" square
and round tubing. And then, I would like a scroll bending attachment.

I have seen these all over the board in prices. From Harbor Freight on
up.
Anyone have one of these benders, and can suggest a source, and maybe some
cautions on what to look for? Would I be better off to just get a simple
one, and not go for all the extra stuff that I might only use rarely?

Steve

"SteveB" writes:

I need a bender. Mostly, I will be bending solid square bar, rod, and flat
bar. Occasionally, I might want to bend the occasional 1/2" to 1" square
and round tubing. And then, I would like a scroll bending attachment.

Sounds similar to my situation.

I have seen these all over the board in prices. From Harbor Freight on up.

The one I saw at Harbor Freight
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=31980
seemed very simple. It didn't strike me as fitting to the shape of the
tubes. Instead, the dies are plain cylinders.

Anyone have one of these benders, and can suggest a source, and maybe some
cautions on what to look for? Would I be better off to just get a simple
one, and not go for all the extra stuff that I might only use rarely?

I orderd a Van Sant Model 3 bender
http://www.vansantent.com/model_3_bender.htm
last month. The dies are finally on their way tomorrow. (One is for 1"
square tube.) It's expensive (to me) and different dies are needed for
every size tube and they take forever to get but it seemed like a
reasonable place to start. The person with whom I spoke on the phone was
knowledgeable, helpful and pleasant, and the followup by their shipping/
sales people has been quite competent. (There was a small glitch and it
was handled well.)

I found a similar bender that didn't have the mechanical advantage of the
ratcheting lever system. BTW, Van Sant also makes an attachment (which I
have) for putting the handle directly on the moving arm for greater range.

I look forward to making solid, planned, repeatable bends - as opposed to
the kludges I've been making with simple conduit benders. I'll try to
report on it.

--kyler

Kyler
I was impressed just looking at their video on how easy it was to bend that
pipe.. I do not plan on doing anything that thick, but I can see it can be
done...
I only plan on bending 1" SQ. 063 tubing and or 1 1/2 X 095, or Sch 40.
not sure at this time.
The notches looks pretty good also.

Keep us posted on what you think when you start bending around.

Don D.


"Kyler Laird" wrote in message
...
"SteveB" writes:

I need a bender. Mostly, I will be bending solid square bar, rod, and
flat
bar. Occasionally, I might want to bend the occasional 1/2" to 1" square
and round tubing. And then, I would like a scroll bending attachment.

Sounds similar to my situation.

I have seen these all over the board in prices. From Harbor Freight on
up.

The one I saw at Harbor Freight
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=31980
seemed very simple. It didn't strike me as fitting to the shape of the
tubes. Instead, the dies are plain cylinders.

Anyone have one of these benders, and can suggest a source, and maybe
some
cautions on what to look for? Would I be better off to just get a simple
one, and not go for all the extra stuff that I might only use rarely?

I orderd a Van Sant Model 3 bender
http://www.vansantent.com/model_3_bender.htm
last month. The dies are finally on their way tomorrow. (One is for 1"
square tube.) It's expensive (to me) and different dies are needed for
every size tube and they take forever to get but it seemed like a
reasonable place to start. The person with whom I spoke on the phone was
knowledgeable, helpful and pleasant, and the followup by their shipping/
sales people has been quite competent. (There was a small glitch and it
was handled well.)

I found a similar bender that didn't have the mechanical advantage of the
ratcheting lever system. BTW, Van Sant also makes an attachment (which I
have) for putting the handle directly on the moving arm for greater range.

I look forward to making solid, planned, repeatable bends - as opposed to
the kludges I've been making with simple conduit benders. I'll try to
report on it.

--kyler

A Hossfeld #2 clone can be had from
http://www.americanbender.com/ for a
little less than the hossfeld. They
also claim to be working on a smaller
version for the hobbyist and smiths.
The American Bender #2 clone uses the
same dies as the hossfeld #2, so no
worries about the availability of a
large variety of die sets. Good luck
with your search.
Chuck

Shawn wrote:
I have the Hossfeld #2 bender. It is a bit pricey but I never ever worry
about the dies breaking when I'm leaning all I have into the handle. There
are LOTS of dies available for this unit to bend nearly any shape in nearly
any position. They will even custom make you a die for an odd shape or
application but I imagine that would cost alot. The base package has
everything you need for up to 1/4" x 4" flat, 2" pipe (not tubing) and I
think up to 5/8" CRR. Dies are extra for square tubing. I have the die set
for 1" square and it works great. It also comes with stops and guides for
production runs. Also made in America.

Shawn
"SteveB" wrote in message
news:Kd9zc.65782$My6.1859@fed1read05...

I need a bender. Mostly, I will be bending solid square bar, rod, and

flat

bar. Occasionally, I might want to bend the occasional 1/2" to 1" square
and round tubing. And then, I would like a scroll bending attachment.

I have seen these all over the board in prices. From Harbor Freight on

up.

Anyone have one of these benders, and can suggest a source, and maybe some
cautions on what to look for? Would I be better off to just get a simple
one, and not go for all the extra stuff that I might only use rarely?

Steve

The original is still the greatest.

I have been using a hossfeld bender almost daily for over 20 years,
and it is still the best all around bender design you can get. If you
have a production application, or you are only going to be bending a
specific type of section, then there are other machines to consider,
but the hossfeld will do the most different things well.
I recommend a hossfeld no. 2 for a general metalworking shop.
The patents have now expired, so there are currently 3 companies
making hossfeld compatible benders and dies-
Hossfeld itself.
www.hossfeldbender.com
They have literally hundreds of different die sets in stock, or at
least the patterns to cast them, and you can bend ANYTHING with a
hossfeld. They are the best for oddball structural shapes- channel,
angle, tee, square on the diagonal, etc.
American Bender
www.americanbender.com
These guys are a cnc machine shop who took over a business started by
an ex-hossfeld employee. They make nice, accurate, finely finished
100% hossfeld interchangeable benders and dies. Their intro package is
quite reasonably priced at $775. They are kind of cherry picking the
more common hossfeld applications, so they only have a few dies, but
what they have is very nice.
JDsquared
www.jd2.com
These guys are more oriented towards the hot rod and auto shop- so
they are concentrating on tubing dies. Their benders are designed to
do lots of roll bars and they are really good for that, not so good
for every oddball application under the sun. Also 100% hossfeld
interchangeable.

Then, there are the knockoffs- first came shop outfitters, who
developed a smaller, cheaper hossfeld copy with much less capability.
They got knocked off by the chinese, who started selling a shop
outfitters clone for about what it cost shop outfitters to buy
materials. Shop Outfitters responded by upgrading their bender, and it
is a decent tool, but no comparison to a real hossfeld. They make
only a very limited array of tooling, and it just doesnt have the
strength or mass to do what a real hossfeld can dol.
The clones are what you see at Harbor Freight. They are ok for very
occasional use on very light materials. But real benders, even shop
outfitters, have features like higher carbon steel, heat treated
parts. The chinese ones dont- you can snap em by overloading them.

The other possibility is a Di-acro bender.
www.diacro.com
These are very nicely made, relatively expensive, and good for
smaller, more precise bends. They do not have the brute force or
larger size capabilities as a hossfeld style, but they are very
accurate and elegant at what they will do. Di-acro is still in
business, but new benders are not cheap- $975 to $2600 new. Very
rarely found used, and usually the sellers want close to new prices
for benders with no tooling.

A Diacro, or a hossfeld or clone will bend anything you need to bend,
and last your lifetime, if not longer. Personally, I would rather buy
a tool once. I have bent 1" x 4" flat bar (hot) into driveline loops
for a tractor, 2" pipe, 1 1/2" square tube into 20 foot radius roof
beams, angle, flat bar the hard way, round bar into perfect circles,
and literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of round, square, rebar
and flat bar with my hossfeld.

As far as scrolls go, there are no small, affordable scroll benders
that make very nice looking scrolls, in my opinion, but I am a snob
about scrolls. Hossfeld does make a scroll die, and I have it, but I
have used it once- it only fits small flat bar the easy way. I think
scrolls made from that look like home depot screen doors. So I bend
scrolls by eye on the hossfeld, from everything from welding rods to
1" square. Or, you could buy one of these-
www.heboe.com
A german cnc scroll bender, with over 30 different multipart scroll
dies- or any design you want custom made. Figure about $12,000 to
$18,000 landed at a port in the US. Worth every penny, as far as I am
concerned- mine has 7 1/2hp geared down to 14 rpm, and that is enough
torque to cold twist 1 1/2" bar without even making a groan. But most
people probably think its a little bit of overkill.

"Ries" wrote in message
om...
The original is still the greatest.

HUGELY INFORMATIVE POST SNIPPED

Thanks for more than I need to know about benders. I am getting geared up
for production work, and will see which one I finally settle on. Thanks for
taking the time to post all the info. I have copied it to my "welding
stuff" folder for future reference.

Steve