[TheForge] Benders

[RIES NIEMI]

That hossfeld bender for sale at the auction looks pretty good, although the
photo doesnt show whether the main 1" holes are ovalised or not, which is
the main wear point. It does have the angle iron flange in and flange out
dies, plus an assortment of fixed radius dies for them, which is very
usefull and expensive- probably about 2 grand worth from hossfeld.

As far as bending machines go, American and Hossfeld are interchangeable,
and american is probably a little better, as the guys are younger and
willing to use newfangled things like milling machines, where the hossfeld
plant does everything with their original 1920's vintage equipment. Hossfeld
does have a much larger set of available dies, so if you need to bend
anything odd you have to get the stuff from them, but the basic machine from
American looks better. I havent looked at a JD squared bender in person, but
it looks like it is optimised for Pipe and Tubing. If that is all you are
going to use it for, its design looks great, but for general shop use, I
think the original hossfeld design is better. There are always at least 3
different ways to set up to bend anything, meaning that odd shaped piece
will fit at least one of them.
I wouldnt bother with hydraulics on a hossfeld unless you are going to do
all day production bending. I have bent 2" pipe, lots of 1" round and square
solid, 1/2" x 3" flat bar the hard and easy ways, and up to about 1 1/2" x
3/16" angle cold with mine without any problem. Also 1" x 3" flat, hot.
In fact, hot, you can bend pretty hefty stuff with a hossfeld. Also stuff
like edgebend 2" x 1/4" the hard way 6" radius.
I personally think all those shop outfitters/ harbor freight benders are
junk- I would break one the first day. Get a hossfeld or hossfeld clone, you
will be happy for as long as you own it. Ive had mine 20 years, and never
regretted it.